Water disruption in Suva and Lami as heavy rain affects treatment plant

People in the greater Suva area and Lami are yet again facing water disruption as the recent heavy rain is affecting turbidity levels at the Tamavua Water Treatment Plant.

The Water Authority of Fiji has not confirmed when supply will normalise, however they confirm 40 water carting trucks are providing water to areas such as Lami, Wailoku, Samabula, Mead Road, Bayview Heights, Namadi Heights, Ragg Avenue, Princes Road up to Khalsa Road, Tamavua Koro, LDS College, 4 and 5 Miles in Tacirua, Cunningham Old Road, Kali Place, Tacirua Bus Garage, all areas feeding off Nagatugatu Reservoir and Vatuyalewa.

They say heavy rain affected three major water source catchments - Headworks 3, Savura, and Waimanu - leading to significantly high turbidity levels at the intakes and raw water pump stations.

They say given that the Tamavua Water Treatment Plant is designed to handle only 60 million litres per day of raw water inflow for production, the inflow was adjusted slightly higher to 65 million litres per day compared to the normal 75 million litres per day inflow required to meet production and demand.

WAF says the increased turbidity levels necessitated frequent backwashing of filters, which, combined with the reduced raw water inflow, led to a drop in production to 80 percent of the normal plant capacity.

They say as a result, reservoir levels decreased from 3.2 metres (pre-rainfall) to 1.2 metres (post-event) as of this morning.

The Authority says the gradual drop of 2 metres in reservoir levels has led to low water pressure and supply disruptions, particularly affecting customers in elevated areas of Tamavua.

WAF says they are working to normalize production as soon as turbidity levels at the Tamavua Water Treatment Plant return to acceptable treatment limits.

The Authority says the goal is to restore raw water inflow to 75 million litres per day and facilitate the recovery of reservoir levels.

They say while valve operations and supply rationing were implemented last night and early this morning, they had minimal impact due to the current low reservoir levels.

WAF, however, reassures customers that efforts are ongoing to restore normal supply as soon as production and reservoir levels recover.