Urgent repair works to the major water leakage along the Vaturu-Nagado high pressure pipeline carried out by the Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) and its contractors, Elisha Engineering Co. Limited, have been completed successfully as scheduled.

WAF General Manager Customer Services and Acting General Manager Operations Sekove Uluinayau said the works were completed by 9am yesterday.

Now disrupted supplies to areas of Lautoka were being restored gradually.

“WAF crew members are now in the process of charging the high- pressure pipeline from the Vaturu Dam to the Nagado Water Treatment Plant. We are on schedule and we anticipate to get water supply normalised to customers by Monday evening into Tuesday morning,” said Mr Uluinayau.

“Water restoration takes time. It will take around an additional 36 to 48 hours in order to restore supply. As part of the restoration process, it will require the recharging of the high-pressure pipeline to the Nagado Water Treatment Plant. Once this is done, we will then work to balance and stabilise the water system at Nagado, before we start supplying clean drinking water to the service reservoirs towards Kashmir, Vuda as well as to Saru.”

Mr Uluinayau thanked the contractors for undertaking the repairs and completing the works within the given timeframe.

“I would like to thank our contractors, the team from Elisha Engineering Co. Limited for a job well done and we would like to thank them for working continuously throughout the repair period, which is approximately 48 hours straight,” said Mr Uluinayau.

Water supply is expected to be normalised by 6 tomorrow morning.

“In the meantime, WAF continues to cart water to customers in the affected areas as well as to the community tanks that have been placed around in strategic locations in communities that have water supply disrupted,” said Mr Uluinayau.

Customers are urged to contact the authority’s National Contact Centre on toll-free short code 1507 or email waterhelp@waf.com.fj for water carting assistance.