This issue of water woes is a continuing one.
There seems to be no end in sight.
It’s frustrating.
It makes people angry.
There is a sense of insecurity, a feeling of helplessness and there is concern that nothing appears to be working.
The powers that be seem to be having issues, and major challenges, and the weather, it seems, isn’t helping at all.
Now we learn that water woes will continue to plague residents living in the greater Central Division following an announcement by the Water Authority of Fiji for people to expect disruptions to supply from May 4.
In an update on their Facebook page, WAF said heavy rain on Saturday led to flooding at the Savura raw water intake.
This disrupted water flow to the Tamavua Water Treatment Plant.
The Waimanu Raw Water Pump Station faced challenges with high turbidity due to silts and debris and caused blockages to intake pumps.
It reduced water production.
Customers have been urged to conserve water, store it, and consider rainwater harvesting as an alternative source.
No timeline has been given on when supply is expected to normalise.
This is a major frustration.
We’ve said this before.
A lot comes back down to common sense.
And again, we wonder what happened over the decades?
What were we doing all this time to our water system?
Did we not plan for a greater population in our urban centres?
Did we ever consider that a lot of people would be moving into our urban centres, and that new houses would be built around these centres?
Did we ever consider by how much the population was set to reach in our urban centres and plan accordingly?
Why are we still dealing with this issue now, many decades later?
Many residents have stories of suffering over the years.
Their stories are slowly coming out now!
The challenge is with those in authority now to do something about this.
It is unfortunate that they may have copped things on the wrong end of the stick so the speak, but people are looking up to them to address their concerns.
The average man, woman and child on the street have high expectations when it comes to clean water supply.
They just want to turn on the tap and water comes out, clean!
The UN World Water Development Report 2024, released in March this year, said 2.2 billion people worldwide have no access to clean drinking water and 3.5 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation.
It states: “Safe drinking water and sanitation are human rights.”
The situation we are facing is not a new story.
The human cost of these disruptions is significant.
Those in authority must take decisive action.
The disruptions affect daily life, economic activity, and has an impact on public health.
Sceptics will suggest we need more than just calls for conservation during disruptions.
We all need a transparent long-term plan, with clear communication from WAF, to rebuild confidence, trust, and to empower people.
Water challenges are disruptive everywhere!
This may not be possible right now, but we would like to say, can someone please fix our water woes!
Urgently please!
Like yesterday!
