As part of International Women’s Day celebrations today (08/03/22), the Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) acknowledged and celebrated the hard-working women of WAF, with employees from all over Fiji showing their solidarity.
WAF Board Chairman, Bhavesh Kumar, said that WAF fully supported the campaign theme of #BreakTheBias, which was already something that WAF put in practice, as could be seen in the women who work in traditionally male-dominated roles.
“We are proud to say that we have women working in fields that have typically been male-dominated in the past. Not only that, we have women in prominent leadership roles, such as our General Manager Legal, Sangeeta Chand.”
“Our Assistant General Manager for Special Projects, Sonam Lata, is involved with one of our biggest projects – the $270m Viria project – and we have also recently promoted WAF team member, Laisa Nacoke, to Acting General Manager Customer Services.”
“Our Quality Assurance Manager, Kirti Chandra, plays an important role at the National Water Quality Laboratory, where you will see many women leading the way and carrying out the crucial testing processes to ensure that the water we supply is safe for consumption,” said Mr Kumar.
“In fact, one could say that without the hard work and efforts of our women team members, we would not be able to provide water and wastewater services to the hundreds of thousands of Fijians that we do on a daily basis.”
Mr Kumar said that WAF’s hiring process is merit-based, where gender is not a factor, and that should be the norm for all organisations.
“Women are no longer relegated solely to traditional roles in the home, they are our peers who deserve equal respect. We value factors like ability, competence, and qualifications when hiring – discrimination along the lines of gender has no place in the modern workplace. This is one of the cores of the work culture that we foster at theAuthority.”
“Our daughters deserve a future where their dedication and hard work speaks for itself and is not ignored on the basis of gender, and we should all do our part in supporting this.”
“Women are equal and they deserve to be treated as such.”The Water Authority of Fiji wishes all women a happy International Women’s Day.