About one million litres of water was being lost every day due to a major leakage on a high pressure raw water pipeline near the Vaturu Dam.

The estimated cost of the water lost due to the leakage on the 711mm MSCL tee along the Vaturu-Nagado high pressure raw water pipeline at Batiri stands at around $30,000 so far.

Works to repair the leakage were expected to start late last night, resulting in a water shutdown to elevated areas in Lautoka from 10pm yesterday until 6am next Tuesday.

Water Authority of Fiji’s general manager customer services and acting general manager operations, Sekove Uluinayau said, “if this leakage is left for a longer period, then the dollar value of the water lost through the leakage would continue to increase.”

“The deterioration of the leakage was brought to our attention a few weeks ago and if we continued to wait, then the volume of water loss and its dollar value would continue to increase day by day.”

Mr Uluinayau said WAF had received numerous queries from its customers on why this Easter long weekend was chosen for the repair works.

He told the Fiji Sun that there was a time frame of two to three days of continuous 24 hours of work to carry out the repair.

“We will work in a chamber so it’s just confined. If we don’t do the repair works now, then it will be a big problem if the raw water pipeline collapses,” he said.

“And if that happens, then there will be no water in Lautoka and Nadi for three weeks or so.

“The long weekend is suitable for this repair work. If we did it in the weekdays, then there would have been problems as workplaces would have had to close early and all because of no water.

“So that’s why we are doing it over this long weekend because if we don’t do it now, then the line will collapse and there will be a bigger problem.”

Mr Uluinayau said WAF was ready to undertake the partial water shutdown at the Nagado Water Treatment Plant to carry out the urgent repair works upstream near the Vaturu Dam.

He said WAF contractors, Elisha Engineering Co.Ltd, would carry out the repair works, which were very critical at this stage because the leakage was deteriorating.

WAF has placed 100 water tanks in all villages and other areas in Lautoka that will face water disruptions until early Tuesday morning.

It has 19 trucks that will refill the water tanks and also cart water to customers.

Edited by Percy Kean