Emerti villagers in Western Province believe their skin infections are linked to the alleged polluted river.
The villagers strongly believe that the river is contaminated upstream where logging operations take place.
Emerti Community Health Worker, Joel Waika, said their suspicions are based on the fact that logging operations upstream at the Kamusi, Panakawa and Sasarima logging camps use chemicals to treat the logs.
These logs are then transported by river and it is during this process that waste from logs are dumped into the river.
The villagers based their belief on this because small sores developed into tropical ulcers and became inflamed after they came in contact with water.
To date there hasn't been any water sampling or testing done by authorities, the villagers added.
(Some of the villagers in Western Province)
