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Content warning: This story disucsses infant death and improper handling of human remains.
The Fijian government plans to install 10 new eco-mortuaries following claims on Kadavu Island that the corpse of a baby was being kept on ice in an esky.
Families on the island have also complained about a leaky body on a boat and being forced to do same-day burials because the Health Ministry cannot afford to keep the mortuary running.
Kadavu is the fourth largest island in Fiji and located approximately 88 kilometres south of the capital, Suva.
The Ministry has since announced it has set aside $NZ7.7 million in the budget to provide new solar-powered containers with a generator power supply as backup.
David Vasu Vuniwai, who hails from Kadavu, recently made a startling claim on social media regarding a relative’s baby.
“Early last year, my cousin lost baby after a short illness. In the midst of grief, the family was told the baby would be held by police pending a post-mortem,” he wrote in a social media post.
“The next day, another cousin went to Vunisea [Hospital] to see the baby. What he found shocked him. The baby had been placed inside an esky, packed to the brim with ice.
“Just imagine that for a moment. No family should ever have to experience that. It is heartbreaking. It is undignified. And it should never happen in any hospital, anywhere in Fiji.”
He also claimed a church pastor’s body had to be transported by boat to Suva and it began leaking during the journey.
Fiji’s Assistant Health Minister Penioni Ravunawa told RNZ Pacific that the government had approved tenders to install a morgue on Kadavu as well as at sub-divisional hospitals in Levuka, Nabouwalu, Naqali, Navua, Nayavu, Savusavu, Taveuni, Vunidawa, and Wainibokasi.
However, he said the building contract needed final approval from the Office of the Solicitor-General, which could take a further six to eight months.
Ravunawa said providing mortuary facilities on outlying islands had strained the ministry’s coffers because there was seldom grid power available.
“The existing mortuary [on Kadavu] remains non-operational due to ongoing power supply limitations. While Vunisea Hospital has a backup generator, it does not have sufficient capacity to support mortuary operations,” he said.
However, the morgue would only serve one side of the mountainous island and was unlikely to be up and running for at least a year, he said.
“Running a mortuary there will not be easy because it will continue to consume power if we have to rely on a diesel generator. The government is looking at sustainable facilities that use renewable energy such as solar and wind power and desalination,” he said.
He said he had a meeting with a solar supplier based in Nadi and who can remotely view and control the temperature of a mortuary in Nadi.
“We are looking at options [like shipping containers] that can easily be moved on trucks or hidden during cyclones.”
The assistant health minister said he believes that most Fijians prefer traditional, same-day burial rituals, that include the giving of gifts to grieving families.
“Mortuaries are part of Western culture; in the past we never [had] them, they are not part of our culture. But people are adopting the idea quickly to give relatives time to travel to funerals on outlying islands,” he said.
He said residents living on maritime islands now wanted the kind of mortuary facilities as those provided in urban areas.
Vuniwai also claimed that when his mother died recently, the family was forced to bury her quickly, so three of her children, including him, did not make the funeral in time.
“The pain of losing my mother was already unbearable. Missing her funeral because there was nowhere to keep her until we arrived, that pain is something I still carry every day,” he wrote on Facebook.
“I write this as someone pleading. I do not not want another family in Kadavu to go through what mine went through.”
Vuniwai said some leaders in Kadavu do not want a working morgue because immediate burial is easier.
“With respect, that decision should never be made for grieving families. No one is asking anyone to delay a burial. What we are asking for is choice. This is about dignity,” he added.
