Half a million litres of water down the drain

Half a million litres of water is being lost daily from the burst Benau to Volanau distribution pipeline, which crosses the Labasa River. So far almost four million litres of water has been lost. The burst was discovered last Saturday and the pipeline is yet to be fixed because the construction of the cofferdam proved futile. 1000 bags of sand were used for the construction of the cofferdam.

The Water Authority of Fiji technical team in Labasa said a large excavator was needed to seal the cofferdam walls to isolate the burst.

The transport pool in Labasa does not have an excavator large enough and a request to hire a large enough excavator has been made to the WAF headquarters.

WAF customer services manager Sekove Uluinayau confirmed that all efforts were being made to ensure that the technical team was given all assistance to ensure the burst pipe was fixed.

“The good thing is that the water levels at the reservoirs are good, but we are concerned about the amount of water that is being wasted,” he said.

“The other thing is that homes which the pipeline supplies water to have not been that much affected.” Areas that can be affected include Qawa, Vunivau, Basoga, Soasoa, Batinikama, Bulileka, Urata, Siberia as well as Boubale.

Residents in these areas confirmed that there was no water supply between 4pm and 10pm on Thursday evening, however water supply was not disrupted yesterday. The technical team in Labasa is also grateful that none of the other pipelines developed leakages because this would have meant more loss of water.

Mr Uluinayau said all efforts were being made to ensure that the burst pipe was fixed this weekend.