Faipule calls for adding two Tualauta flood areas to ASG’s “urgent projects”

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Tualauta Rep. Larry S. Sanitoa has requested the Lemanu Administration to place “two important projects” in Tualauta county on the government’s list of “urgent projects” to be funded with American Samoa’s share of $100 million from the federal Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act.

The first one is the “Cost-U-Less/GIAS Drainage — Route 14 Mitigation” project, and Sanitoa explained that despite numerous fixes in the past to improve the soakage pit drainage by the GIAS store to address the dangerous runoff water after every downpour, the flooding in this area has worsened due to lack of proper maintenance. 

Fortunately, since early 2019, the Annesley family has allowed the Public Works Department (DPW) to drain the water runoff onto their property.

“The Annesley family now wants to build on their property and have been asking for the status of the new drainage project,” Sanitoa wrote in a letter late last week to Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga.

He pointed out that the new drainage project would make it possible to drain the runoff water into the airport drainage system which will then pipe this water out to the ocean.

According to the veteran faipule, Office of Disaster Assistance and Petroleum Management (ODAPM) director Lisa Tuato’o and her team in conjunction with Public Works director, Faleosina Voigt and her team have submitted an application to the U.S Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant to fund this critical project.

Unfortunately, he said the BRIC grant is a FEMA competitive grant with other states and territories and thus can take a very long time due to its competitive nature. Furthermore, it will need about 25% in local matching funds.

“We understand the proposed cost for this project is approximately $8 million but due to the uncertainty with the FEMA mitigation grant, we respectfully seek your help to please consider using the new Infrastructure funding when it becomes available this year to expedite this critical and important work,” he wrote.

The second project cited in Sanitoa’s letter is the Fagaima Flood Mitigation and Road Project — for which FEMA awarded $3.1 million last year under a Hazard Mitigation Grant.

While this is welcomed news, he said the funding amount is well below the $8.53 million needed for the project.

“We would still need another $5.43 million through in-kind services and shared funding. Furthermore, the awarded funding is time sensitive in which funds have to be spent by a specific date,” he pointed out.

“Given the decades of tremendous financial hardship on our residents and motorists traveling through this highly travelled road, we respectfully request that funding from the Infrastructure bill be used to immediately address this most critical project,” he said.

At the outset of the letter, Sanitoa thanked the governor and Voigt for including several of Tualauta’s recommended roads and drainage projects on the Administration’s new list of pending projects.

He explained that DPW acting director Fa’alavai Ta’ase was able to share this new list during a House committee hearing two weeks ago.

“This is certainly welcome news to many of our residents and motorists who have endured financial hardship because of property damage caused by deplorable roads and flooding,” he said.

In conclusion of his letter Sanitoa said, “We look forward to your favorable response and we remain optimistic that most of these long-standing critical projects for a populated district will finally be addressed this year.”

The letter is copied to the Lt. Gov. Talauega Eleasalo Ale, who is the Governor’s Authorized Representative (GAR) as well as Tualauta lawmakers in both the Senate and House.

(In the interest of transparency, Samoa News points out that an Annesley family corporation owns Samoa News.)