The Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) is ready to undertake the major repair work on the leaking 711mm MSCL tee along the Vaturu-Nagado high-pressure raw water pipeline at Batiri, near the Vaturu Dam.
During the repair and restoration period, water supply will be disrupted to elevated residential areas of Lautoka City from 10 pm Thursday (18/04) until 6 am Tuesday (23/04).
WAF General Manager Customer Services and Acting General Manager Operations, Mr Sekove Uluinayau said that all preparatory works have been undertaken.
“WAF is ready to undertake the partial water shutdown at the Nagado Water Treatment Plant to carry out the urgent repair works upstream near the Vaturu Dam. Our contractors are also geared up to carry out the repairs. The leakage is suspected to have started from the welding joints and this has deteriorated, causing WAF to lose approximately one mega liter per day,” explained Mr Ulunayau.
The repair work will be undertaken by WAF contractors, Elisha Engineering Co. Limited and works would take a maximum of 2 to 3 days of continuous 24 hours of works.
“The repair works on the leaking tee is very critical at this stage as the leakage is seen to be deteriorating from the past few weeks and would be catastrophic to WAF should the leakage increases or the entire tee connection fails, thus resulting in major disruption in water supply to the customers in Nadi and Lautoka area.” Mr Uluinayau emphasized.
“Our teams have worked around the clock to place a total of 100 water tanks in nearly all the villagers and communities which will be facing water disruptions from Thursday evening into Friday morning. Additionally, we have a total of 19 water carting trucks that will be deployed to refill these water tanks and to cart water to customers,” said Mr Uluinayau.
Mr Uluinayau is requesting the residents and customers in the Lautoka area to begin storing their amounts of back up supply now before 10 pm Thursday, April 18.
“I urge the residents of Lautoka to please store your share of backup water supply – based on our calculations, customers are to please store at least 200litres to sustain you and your family during the disruption period. Do not wait for the eleventh hour as experiences from the previous water shutdowns saw many residents filling their share of water in the last minute and some were disappointed as water pressures had drastically dropped due to the sudden surge of customers all opening their taps at once,” Mr Uluinayau explained.
Meanwhile, customers are to contact the Authority’s National Contact Centre on 1507 or email waterhelp@waf.com.fj for any clarification or water carting assistance.
More updates will be made available as the repair works progress.