The Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) is again urging Fijians to properly dispose of their rubbish, after WAF teams attended to an overflowing manhole in Lautoka and found rubbish including plastic bottles that had clogged up the sewerage system.
WAF ground teams, responding to complaints by residents, cleared the blockage, which also included grass, and thoroughly flushed the system.
“This is an ongoing issue that we are having to deal with, despite continual reminders, and we need those who are throwing their rubbish wherever they please, to stop,” said WAF CEO, Mr Barry Omundson.
In this case the residents went to the media to complain about the issue on the basis that it was caused by the Water Authority of Fiji when in fact the real cause was fellow residents who have chosen to dump their rubbish into our sewer systems thereby causing disruptions to other residents and environmental damage.
“Careless littering is an extremely selfish act that affects the health and safety of entire communities and causes thousands of dollars worth of damage to the sewer and drainage systems.”
“We put in a lot of time and manpower to fix these issues which, frankly, could have been avoided had people disposed of their rubbish properly in the first place. These resources could have been better allocated for other projects and upgrades.”
WAF uses a complaints management and performance measurement tool called Gentrack to follow up on complaints and in the case of wastewater overflows, a dedicated team is sent in.
Please do not throw rubbish, especially plastics into your sink, toilets or drains. Dispose of them carefully.
WAF encourages its customers and public to always call on 3346 777 and 5777 to lodge complaints. This will allow WAF to direct complaints to the right team and ensure the complaints are attended to in a timely manner.
-ENDS-
For more information, please contact the WAF Communications Team on email corpcoms@waf.com.fj