Dry spell to continue – Fiji Met

People will need to conserve water as the Nadi Weather Office has confirmed that the dry spell will continue this month.

Director of the Fiji Meteorological Services, Teri Atalifo says they are forecasting that in the next 7 days, there will be no heavy rain event and this pattern will continue in the next fortnight.

He says the weather outlook for the next 7 days is brief showers and isolated afternoon showers.

Water Authority of Fiji CEO, Dr. Amit Chanan highlighted that with a water prohibition notice in place for people living along the Lami-Suva-Nausori corridor, people are being urged to avoid any non-essential use of water such as washing driveways or cars because we all need to pitch in to save water so that we can pass through this unprecedented dry spell.

Dr Chanan says there is a gap between supply and demand of 3 million litres of water on a daily basis because of infrastructure but this weather event since the 14th of March has made the situation a lot worse.

He says right now because of this dry weather spell, that gap is 7 million litres and if the river flows keep going down, the production will go down and that gap will become bigger.

WAF Chief Operating Officer, Seru Soderberg says 6 millimetres of rainfall is needed everyday to sustain supply but rain has been 1 millimetre or less in the last 3 to 4 days.

Dr. Chanan says if the forecast low flows continue, the gap will become more and it will become harder for them to operate the system as well.

He says if they get more than six millimetres of rain for a few days, then river levels will be brought back up and help them bring back the production to do the normal levels which is a gap of 3 million litres a day.

Dr. Chanan says they will only bridge that gap with the Viria Water Project online.

The CEO further says the legislation allows for the prohibition and there is a provision for fines as well but that is not their intent.

He says he is hoping that the community will be responding to their calls.

Dr. Chanan adds they will be allowing car wash operators an average usage which will put the onus on them to be more efficient and WAF will be closely monitoring it.