With thousands of people living along the Lami-Suva-Nausori corridor getting water supply for about 6 hours a day, Water Authority of Fiji CEO, Doctor Amit Chanan says the best they can do now is water carting and rationing.
He says whatever resource they have, they are sharing it equitably as well as bringing water carts from outside the Suva-Nausori area.
Dr. Chanan says we are in a critical state as our climate has changed.
He says looking at some meteorology figures, typically at this time of the year, Fiji gets some trade winds that bring in some moisture into Viti Levu and bring some rain but we have not had those trade winds since March and our rainfall is reflecting that.
Dr. Chanan says with the exception of some downpour the weekend before last, there has not been 6 millimetres of rain since the 14th of March and without that, there is no supply in the river which is reflected in the restrictions in force.
The CEO says they are going out to Deuba and Korovuto to get water for carting.
Dr. Chanan says the long-term solution is the Viria Water Project which is well on track to finish construction in July and once it is done, the plant will be commissioned.
Dr. Chanan further says 47 percent leakage is really high and even in the middle of a drought, they are losing about 60 million litres of water due to leakages.
He says their priority is to have a targeted program where their teams are attacking any visible leak but they do need a performance-based contract and Asian Development Bank is supporting them with this work to get some expertise to help and complement their team to deal with the challenge.
