ABOUT 40 per cent or 18 out of the 45 water sources in the country are at “critical” status. Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) general manager customer services Sekove Uluinayau highlighted this during a stakeholder consultation in Nadi yesterday.
The North is the worst hit division, with nine of its 14 water sources at critical levels. For the Central/Eastern Division, five out of 17 water sources are at critical level while four of 14 water sources in the West are affected.
“This (North) is the worst hit region for us at WAF because the sources in the North are smaller compared with the west and central regions so they tend to dry faster and that’s why most of them are at a critical status,” Mr Uluinayau said.
He said mitigation plans had been put in place to maximise water retention at dams.
“Mitigation plans have been implemented to make sure the water that we get at our intakes does not affect the supply.
“One of the mitigation plans we have done is to construct cofferdams downstream because at the current setups at the dams, the water sources have dried up so we have moved downstream and we have built cofferdams to capture more water into the system and pump it into our treatment plants.
“Other mitigation plans we are doing is through water carting and some areas we had in Labasa a few weeks back, we were doing water rationing. We have also installed package plants in Levuka and we are trying to raise awareness of the imminent threat that is before us, of the low levels at our water sources.”
