People living in areas like Nakasi, Naulu, Davuilevu, Sasawira, Naduru and other parts of Nausori will continue to face water disruptions every night as the Water Authority of Fiji has to carry out valve operations to ensure there is enough water in the reservoirs.
Chief Operations Officer, Seru Soderberg states that WAF produces 172 million litres of water a day for the Suva/Nausori area however based on the population, the area needs 174 million litres of water.
Our water infrastructure cannot cope based on the population in certain areas at this stage.
Soderberg says if they don’t do the valve operations, there will be no water the next day and more areas will be affected.
Valve operations at night involve throttling the valve to push more water into the reservoir and then pushing water towards the customers the next morning.
This results in low pressure to no water at night into the morning for affected areas.
Soderberg says they will continue to do this until at least the Viria Water Project is completed by mid next year.
He says Viria will provide 40 million litres of water which will take care of the lack of supply to the Suva/Nausori area.
WAF advises people living in the greater Nausori area that the WAF team will be carrying out valve operations from 10am to 4pm and from 9pm to 4am daily, at the Vuci Bypass and Nausori Offtake, to assist with filling and level retention at the Raralevu Reservoir.
WAF says the time is subject to changes based on their reservoirs reaching critical levels due to high water demand during the day.
Soderberg says the customer base within the Suva - Nausori corridor has experienced exponential growth in the past few years and naturally, the demand for water has increased.
He says these operations are essential to ensuring that a level of service is maintained to customers in Nausori.
A Naduru Road resident has confirmed they do not even get water cartage during the day to cater for their needs.
He says this has been happening for a very long time, and residents in his area can not afford to have water tanks.
Residents of Naulu, Nakasi and Davuilevu are continuously complaining about lack of water supply to their homes, mostly at night.
They have told us that they have been without proper water supply at night.
