Rising river causes pigs to evacuate

BY GEORGINA KEKEA

LIVING close to the river surely has its disadvantages especially during the rainy season. Not only does one has to keep awake at night but face evacuation.

Teresa Suki lives close by the Tenaru river, near the bridge. But this time round, it wasn’t her and the grandchildren that were facing evacuation. Instead it was her pigs.

Following the heavy rainfall, water has now risen to the pigs fence and Teresa says she had to let her pigs out from their fence or risk having them taken by the flooded river.

Speaking to Island Sun, Teresa says she hasn’t slept a wink but was on the lookout for the rising water during night time. She says living close to the river banks is okay except for when it rains.

“Here water will reach this floor and what we usually do is to go up to higher ground on the road and wait for the water to go down. Last night we didn’t sleep for fear of flood but it didn’t reach our house yet except for my pigs fence. So I have to break open the fence for the pigs to come out.”

Unfortunately she said that one pig has been missing since then.

Teresa said she does not know what had happened to her other pig and felt sorry that it had gone missing.

“I don’t know how I lost that pig. When I did a head count, there was one already missing”, she said.

“I am trying to raise money to buy copper and flooring timber for my house which I am building close to Ngalimbiu. A pig that size should give me $2000,” Teresa said.

“I’ve ran out of money to buy my needed building materials and my hopes are in these pigs.”

Now that the pigs are outside, she said the next thing is to keep a watch out for them in case they got run over by a vehicle. Not only that but to maintain the peace as they also fight each other.

Teresa said though it is tough, they enjoy their living and will not have it any other way.

Asked if they are also faced with bad crops during the rainy season, Teresa said no.

“We have a good spot where we do our gardening and so we don’t usually have this sort of problems”.

Teresa said only banana plants will be affected by the rain.

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