The Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) will be carrying out emergency repairs to another major leakage at its Nagado Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in Nadi.
During the repair works customers living in Nadi and Lautoka will experience no water supply from 5 pm Saturday 23rd June until 12 pm Wednesday 27th June.
Areas affected will be Nadi and Lautoka areas except for the Lautoka City Centre and some outer boundaries of Lautoka who are supplied through Buabua and Saru Water Treatment Plant.
WAF Chief Operating Officer, Mr Samanmal Ekanayake said that this water disruption is a result of major maintenance work that will be carried out at the Nagado Water Treatment Plant.
“This maintenance work involves the urgent replacement of a ‘Polyjet’ section of the pipeline from the Vaturu Dam to the Nagado Water Treatment Plant. This particular section of the pipeline is currently leaking, causing the loss of large amounts of raw water. The repair to the section of the pipeline is completely different from the section that was repaired during the shutdown earlier this year (3rd to 6th February),” said Mr Ekanayake.
The polyjet valve is used to measure and regulate pressurized water flow from the Vaturu Dam to the Nagado WTP.
“Due to the high-pressure line from Vaturu, vibrations is being experienced in the chamber which contains the polyjet’s base, WAF crew members have identified leakages at the base of the 10-meter high chamber,” said Mr Ekanayake.
Mr Ekanayake said water supply is expected to be gradually restored after the repair.
“However, the restoration operation is a complex process that involves with air bleeding and flushing of the trunk mains. Since entire transmission system and all service reservoirs below Nagado WTP becomes empty, the anticipated time for complete water restoration will be 2.5 to 3 days after the repair. Therefore, the total estimated time for the entire operation will be 3.5 to 4 days,” said Mr Ekanayake.
WAF General Manager for Customer Services, Mr Sekove Uluinayau said that to sufficiently satisfy water requirements over the shutdown period each household should store at least 200 litres of water for drinking and cooking purposes.
“For other purposes such as bathing, washing dishes and clothes, more water should be stored. Once households run out of water they have stored, there will be around one hundred and seventy, 5,000 litre and 10,000 litre water tanks that will be located at strategic locations for people to go and fill in their containers and gallons. In addition, WAF will attend to specific requests that will made by domestic customers its water carting services,” said Mr Ulunaiyau.
Mr Uluinayau said WAF will ensure that during the shutdown period there will be no interruption in the major services such as hospitals, airport, schools and hotels as 63 water carting trucks will be deployed to cart water as well 16 four wheel drive twin cabs carting 1000 litre water tanks to service inaccessible areas.
“Therefore, the Authority is kindly requesting its customers residing in these areas to support this essential operation by storing sufficient water prior to the disruption and using water wisely for their immediate needs during this shutdown period,” said Mr Uluinayau.
The Authority highly regrets any inconvenience caused to its customers and is committed to getting water supply normalized as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, customers in Nadi and Lautoka can contact the Nagado Shutdown Helpline through the toll-free shortcode 1507 for TFL, Vodafone, Digicel and Inkk network users, or email nagadohelpline@waf.com.fj for further enquiries, which will be available 24 hours a day, during the emergency shutdown period.