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The Fiji government is looking at approving the set up of private funeral homes to ease the overcrowding of mortuaries in hospitals around the country.
This follows a visit in January by a group of Korean entrepreneurs who expressed interest in the funeral home business that include cremating the dead in proper indoor “gas-controlled” environments.
Health Ministry spokesperson Iliesa Tora told FijiLive the main CWM Hospital in Suva could only take 26 corpses at any one time.
“At the moment they are storing more than that,” Tora said.
Fiji’s Locally Managed Marine Area network have welcomed the initiative saying it would help save the mangrove forests in Fiji since wood from the mangroves (dogo) are being used as firewood for the current cremation practices.
Current practices have drawn criticism from the Environment Department who are concerned about how skeletal remains are thrown into the sea after burning saying it is “littering and a threat to marine life”.
90 percent of Fiji’s health system is run by the Government and part of the reforms taking place is the shift to privatizing some of its core business.
