The Water Authority (WAF) has confirmed that work on the damaged main pipeline from the Tamavua Water Treatment Plant to Suva is expected to be completed today.
WAF chief operations officer Seru Soderberg said it was unfortunate that they faced major incidents over the past two to three weeks.
“On Wednesday night, one of the telecommunications contractors was carrying out horizontal drilling works up Princess Rd, and while carrying out the drilling, it drilled into the trunk of a 600 pipeline,” Mr Soderberg said.
“That 600 line is one of the two main outlets out of Tamavua Water Treatment Plant, while the second one goes down towards Lami, but this is a major one because from Tamavua Water Treatment Plant it comes down to Samabula, before it provides water to Waimanu Rd which includes the hospital, Rewa St, Gaji Rd, down towards Raiwaqa, Raiwai, Nailuva and Samabula North.
“So, the coverage area for this particular treatment is very wide.
“We’ve been working since Thursday morning to try and rectify this issue.”
Mr Soderberg said their biggest challenge are the major cables running in proximity to the main pipeline.
“Our trunk main is at the bottom of all the services that’s on that site.
“We have a major EFL high voltage cable. As you head up towards the Tamavua Water Treatment Plant, there’s a space of about a metre and a half before you hit TFL cables. It’s directly on top of the 600 line.
“And there’s another space of about half a metre before you touch onto one of our 200 lines. And there’s another half a meter before you touch another TFL cable and then there’s another EFL cable.
“So, our space for this work is really limited.” Mr Soderberg said they were cautious with their work so that other services were not affected.
“And those EFL cables provide supply to the Suva City area, so it’s a major high voltage line that if we do damage it, there is a likelihood of somebody losing their life on site.
“So that caused the slowing down of our excavation works because we have had to manoeuvre ourselves in between these services.
“We are working very closely with the team from EFL to ensure we don’t damage their services as we try to access our pipes on site.”
