The Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) will be installing new Vanessa Valves and Pressure Transducer Pipes at its Nagado Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in Nadi from 29th September to 2nd October, 2018.
During the installation works, customers living in Nadi and Lautoka will experience interruptions to their water supply from 1am Saturday morning (29th September) until midnight Tuesday (2nd October, 2018).
The areas affected will be the whole Nadi area and certain areas in Lautoka, excluding the Lautoka City Centre and some outer boundaries of Lautoka that are supplied through the Buabua and Saru Water Treatment Plants.
Earlier this year, on the 3rd to 6th February WAF carried out a planned water shutdown to remove the defective ‘Vanessa Valve’ which was leaking uncontrollably. This was carried out successfully and four months later on the 23rd to 27th June, an ‘Emergency Shutdown’ was announced to allow the removal of the severely defective ‘Polyjet Valve.’
The installation works will be carried out by a highly reputable and experienced Engineering Contractor in the country.
WAF Board Chairman, Mr Bhavesh Kumar is requesting the members of the public to start storing water for at least four days.
“Please, start saving and storing your water supply. It is imperative that WAF conducts these important installations at the Nagado Treatment Plant as this will allow Fijians in the Western Division to have a more reliable and fully operational water treatment plant,” said Mr Kumar.
The WAF Board Chairman said the two new Vanessa valves have been purchased and manufactured in Italy and have arrived into the country and are now ready to be installed.
“We have decided to carry out these works due to its critical nature of operations as well as the potential risks that could occur if this was to be done at a later time.”
Mr Kumar reassured the public that water supply will be expected to be gradually restored after the installation works.
“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 to 3 days after the repair. Therefore, the total estimated time for the entire operation will be 3 to 4 days,” said Mr Kumar.
After the installation of the two Vanessa Valves, the Polyjet Valve (which was removed in June) will be installed without causing any major water disruption on a later date.
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, 150 water tanks of 5,000litres capacity will be placed at strategic locations around the affected areas, this is to allow members of the public to refill their containers and gallons. In addition, WAF will attend to specific requests that will made by domestic customers through its water carting services,” said Mr Uluinayau.
Mr Uluinayau said WAF will ensure that during the shutdown period, minimum interruption to major services such as hospitals, airport, schools and hotels as water carting trucks will be deployed accordingly.
“WAF is kindly requesting its customers residing in these areas to support this essential operation by storing sufficient water prior to the shutdown and use water wisely for immediate needs during the shutdown period,” said Mr Uluinayau.
The Authority will be meeting with the stakeholders (hotels, councils, businesses, Airports Fiji Limited, and other major customers) soon to discuss the planned shutdown as done previously.
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 Authority through the emergency toll-free shortcode 1507 or email waterhelp@waf.com.fj for further enquiries. This will be available 24 hours a day, during the shutdown period.