The 900-millimetre Viria to Waila connection work that was done by the Water Authority of Fiji last weekend was an important resiliency work.
It provided additional supplementary flow to maintain service delivery as much as possible, should any major fault occur in Waila.
Minister for Public Works, Meteorological Services and Transport Ro Filipe Tuisawau highlighted this in Parliament earlier this month while updating the MPs on the actions that were taken to alleviate the shortage of water supply to consumers during dry condition.
“The Waila System currently operates four major lift pumps to provide flow into the Wainibuku Reservoir which in turn supplies Tovata, Kalabu, Flagstaff, Nasinu, Nagatugatu, Dokainaisavu and Colo-i-Suva Reservoirs,” Ro Filipe said.
“The service delivery risk that currently exists for the Waila System is the lack of backup for the existing pumping system, should a major failure of assets such as the switchboard transformer et cetera, occur reducing the pumping capacity.
“The risk has the potential to impact supply to approximately 40 per cent of the Suva, Nausori population.”
He said work was carried out to expand Viria Treatment Plant capacity to 80 million litres daily.
“Once the Viria Treatment Plant capacity is expanded to 80 million litres per day (MLD) from the existing 40 MLD, more flow will be available to be pushed into the Suva System via Waila through this connection ensuring capacity to meet current and future depends.”
Ro Filipe said they were also promoting rainwater harvesting.
“It is always good for you to have your backup at home because we never know what will happen, climate change and the extremes in the weather systems.
“If the water flow improves, anything can happen. During the cyclones, there can be a landslide which disrupts the waterpipe infrastructure or flood or anything.
“My message to the nation is to always have a backup in terms of rainwater harvesting.”
