Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) ground teams will conduct repairs to the 250mm wastewater rising main along Viti Levu Drive in Pacific Harbour, which collapsed due to sustained heavy rain and ageing infrastructure.
The pipeline collects gravity flow from a total of two hundred and twenty-four (224) houses within Makosoi, Admiral Circle and Viti Levu Drive and discharges to Deuba 5 wastewater pump station.
“The collapsed line is sitting at a depth of around four to five meters and numerous attempts to repair the collapse pipeline were unsuccessful due to high infiltration and underground flow into the trench that the team could not remove to carry out the repair works,” said WAF CEO, Mr Barry Omundson.
As Pacific Harbour was developed on reclaimed land consisting of sand and soil, it is difficult to conduct trenching works, which is an issue for WAF ground teams seeking access to replace a fault.
“Our customer service level expectations are high, and rightly so, and on top of this we have had rapid growth in commercial developments. The age and condition of our assets here compound an already difficult situation,” said Mr Omundson.
“This presents some operational challenges, so we have to factor in extra time and resources to account for this. Other than that, our team is highly skilled and trained to deal with these situations and I am confident that we will get this resolved in a satisfactory manner.”
Mr Omundson said in the next few days, WAF will install a temporary by-pass which will see the installation of a by-pass pump from the upstream manhole before the collapsed pipe, which is then discharged into a manhole downstream.
A permanent solution will be submitted in the next Public Sector Investment Programme 2020/2021 for design and build.
WAF apologises to affected residents and asks for patience as they fix this issue.
Residents are advised to contact 5777 if they are facing issues.