The Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) would like to update the residents of the Sawanikula and Waibasaga Village, as well as members of the general public, on the status of water projects at the two villages.
WAF Chief Operating Officer, Seru Soderberg, said that Sawanikula Village is covered as part of WAF’s outsourced projects and that works are scheduled to commence in 2022.
“The project will consist of the development of a dam on a new catchment, the construction of a Ferro cement tank, trenching, pipelaying, and the installation of service connections for 50 standpipes and showers,” said Mr Soderberg.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was initially delayed. Now, while we have already engaged an external contractor, work still cannot proceed until the contract has been finalised and handed over. Once the project commences, barring any major weather conditions or other unforeseen circumstances that may delay works, we are estimating a timeline of at least 16 weeks for completion.”
“In the case of Waibasaga Village, our teams have not yet received any request for a survey to be conducted from the village and neither are we aware of the residents facing any issues.”
“We do, however, encourage the residents to raise and highlight the issue to the Roko Tui’s Office or the Provincial Administrator’s Office first – which is the proper channel to follow with regard to requests for developments within a respective area – who will then pass it on to our teams.”
Mr Soderberg reminded members of the public that for the rural projects, WAF is only an implementing agency and the operation and maintenance of the facilities is the responsibility of the individual water committees.
“This includes the regular cleaning of the dam and catchment areas in an effort to minimise contamination of the water source as this would impact the quality of water received and lead to water-borne diseases.”
“Careful and diligent management of the water catchment and regular cleaning of the dam are essential for reducing the presence of insects and other contaminants.”
For further enquiries, call 3346777 or short code 5777 (all mobile networks) or email contact@waf.com.fj