The Water Authority of Fiji has revealed in a statement that the reduced water pressure to the fire hydrants in Sakoca Settlement on Sunday was due to the Khalsa booster pumps being temporarily disabled and this was a result of an unplanned power outage caused by the fire in Sakoca Settlement.
WAF says their team conducted an investigation after receiving reports that the National Fire Authority was unable to access water services from the available fire hydrants.
WAF Acting Chief Operating Officer Miteshwar Chand says they verified the power outage and found out that it was caused by the same fire, through Energy Fiji Limited’s advisory to customers on their Facebook page, and also confirmed this with EFL customer care.
Chand says the unplanned power outage occurred at approximately 11.35am Sunday, affecting the Khalsa booster pump station which resulted in nil inflow into the Nagatugatu reservoir, impacting water pressure in the area, particularly elevated areas.
He adds after establishing the pumps were off due to an unplanned power outage, their Mechanical and Electrical team took action to switch on their standby generators as soon as possible.
Chand says while this allowed them to have 3 out of their 5 booster pumps active, inflow into the reservoir was still limited and water levels continued to drop.
He says power was restored a little after 2pm and they switched the power supply for the pump station back over. Chand also confirmed that a call was received by the WAF call centre from the National Fire Authority at 2pm seeking assistance on boosting water pressure to assist with the firefighting efforts.
He says this was a very tragic and unfortunate series of events and they will be working with the NFA to try and address any communication delays so response times can be improved.
He adds they would also like to express their condolences to the families who lost their homes in this unfortunate incident.
