Decision expected if nationwide drought will be declared

As a decision is expected to be made today on whether a nationwide drought will be officially declared, revelations are now coming to light that Fiji will ideally need over a month of solid torrential rain nationwide to ease the dry weather.

In an analysis report, Chief Research Scientist, Doctor Sushil Sharma revealed that all twenty five stations around the country recorded below average rainfall which have been ongoing for the past sixteen months since May 2009.

Doctor Sharma reveals that after looking through the compiled analysis reports from their 25 weather stations, Viwa island, Nadi, Lautoka, Rarawai and Navua will need at least an average of 300-600milimters of rain while surprisingly Savusavu needs the highest rainfall of over 900mm of rain to alleviate the current toll the dry weather is taking on the vegetation.

He added that this amount of rain is very hard to achieve with the one off rain fall the country has been experiencing over the past few months, adding the only time the country breathed a sigh of relief was with the rain brought by Tropical Cyclone Mick.

However, Doctor Sharma revealed that the Weather Office expects the current drought like weather condition to break in December with the rainy weather expected to start.

The meeting between the Nadi Weather Office, Doctor Sharma, DISMAC and other Government Agencies is expected to be held this afternoon in Suva.

Story by: Paradise Tabucala.