THE Water Authority of Fiji estimates that permanent fixes in cyclone-affected areas will take a couple of years.
WAF chief executive officer Opetaia Ravai said before the water pipes were laid again, they would need to wait for the houses to be rebuilt.
“So to lay pipes closer to the homes will have to wait until the homes are built,” said Mr Ravai.
“So right now what we have done is put stand pipes at strategic locations in the villages where they can access water, near the community halls in between the set of houses, near the schools so at least they have some access to water,” Mr Ravai said
He said at the moment there were temporary fixes in place.
“There were close to 532 villages that got damaged and their water supply systems were affected.”
“So our staff from the urban centres were deployed. There were close to 160 staff that were deployed in the various regions and districts to visit make a quick assessment, and make quick repairs.
“Now a lot of these repairs are temporary in nature. Some of the pipes if you see some of the repairs are hanging on trees, just to get water across to people so that they can carry on with their daily lives and rebuilding their lives and they need water to do this.”
