WAF engineers repairing the defective 600mm valve between Waila Pumping Station and Wainibuku Reservoir

People living along the Suva Nausori corridor who still do not have water supply due to burst mains may have to wait a while longer.

The Water Authority of Fiji says their engineers worked around the clock on Thursday to repair the defective 600mm valve between Waila Pumping Station and Wainibuku Reservoir.

The defective valve caused leaks, affecting delivery to close to nearly 200,000 customers.

Authority CEO Opetaia Ravai says in Waila, there are three pipes transporting water from the pumping station to the Wainibuku Reservoir.

Ravai says to repair the valve they had to switch off two pumps and have one pump running to fill the Wainibuku reservoir.

He says when the Authority had to turn off the two pumps and have one pump running they were losing about sixty to seventy percent of pumping capacity to the Wainibuku Reservoir and they were only filling thirty to forty percent of the reservoir which affected supply to a lot of the customers along the Suva and Nausori corridor.

Ravai says the defective valve was repaired on Thursday night at 9:30pm and they switched on the pumps at 10pm.

He says the power shutdown yesterday also affected the system, but they were able to utilise their generators to keep the major pumps running.

Ravai confirms that they haven’t fully recovered yet, and because 70% of the network pipes ran empty, the full restoration of the supply will be gradually restored in two days.

He advises customers to store and use water wisely in this time. Water carts will be on standby to service the affected areas as and when the need arises.