Velovelo, Lautoka residents continue to face water issues despite assurances from WAF

Residents of Velovelo, Lautoka continue to raise concerns about water supply despite assurances from the Water Authority of Fiji that supply would be normalised in the next two to three weeks.

A resident says about 15 families do not have regular water supply for more than a year.

She says they get water from about 11pm to 4am everyday and have to stay up late at night to fill their water tanks.

The woman says they have young children and face a lot difficulty taking care of them.

She says they pay their bills on time, however, WAF is not able to supply them with water.

The resident says they want to know why supply has not been normailsed despite getting assurance from WAF that the work would be carried out in the next two to three weeks.

WAF had earlier told fijivillage News that intermittent water supply to customers residing in the elevated parts of Velovelo Road in Lautoka is due to hydraulic constraints experienced on existing DN80 and DN50 water mains supplying the area.

They say the water supply is further impacted by the increase in the number of houses coming up along the Velovelo Tramline Road where the majority of the customers had been connected through the gang meters from the same water main.

WAF says the community had raised similar issues in the past and the initiative was taken to lay a DN100 water main as a quick-win project to have individual water meters from the gang meters transferred to this new main.

They say a new 500 metre DN100 water main was laid and commissioned a few weeks ago; however, their team was currently working on transferring the individual meter connections.

They say once all the meter connections are transferred from the DN80 main to the new DN100 main, the families should see some improvements in supply, however, further improvement is required to boost the existing DN80 main through the new main to have adequate water pressures to sustain normal supply to elevated customers.

WAF had said late last month that these works were planned to be progressively carried out in the next 2 to 3 weeks and in the interim, water carting trucks would be providing temporary relief to the affected customers on a need basis.

WAF adds this cost the Authority about $120,000.

They are yet to respond to further questions.