Nadi residents raise concerns over intermittent water supply as WAF promises upgrades

Many people in parts of Nadi including Meigunyah, Malamala, Nadogo and Nadele are raising serious concerns about intermittent and no water supply for some time while the Water Authority of Fiji says upgrading their water treatment plant in Nagado which will start to bring in an additional 20 million litres of water to address water issues in the West.

Meigunyah resident, Anjani Deo says they do not get any information from the Water Authority of Fiji before their supply gets cut off.

She says the water pressure is also low most of the time and despite many requests to bring the main line down, this has not been done.

Another Nadi resident, Anish Raju says WAF built the two huge blue Tasman water tanks on the mountains of Malamala in Nadi but forgot to lay the pipeline that will transport the water from Nagado/ Nadele water treatment plants to the tank to supply water to the people of Nadi.

He says many people are now facing the troubles of intermittent or low water supply and they need relief.

While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, WAF CEO Doctor Amit Chanan says there is a need to build additional reservoirs to support the capacity because of the profound dry period in the West.

Chanan says Water Sector Strategy 2050 identifies these areas as key priorities and the big challenge in terms of water supply and demand balance is going to be the Nadi-Lautoka area since these areas are developing faster, particularly around tourism.

The CEO says right now 30 percent of the water supplied to Nadi goes to Denarau as tourists use 10 times more than residents and one can imagine with the growth of tourism which is critically needed for the economy, they will also need to invest in the water supply.