‘It’s been very hard’
Tacirua residents without piped water supply
THIS Christmas will not be merry for some residents living in Tacirua amidst claims they have been without piped water supply for the past five days.
Speaking to The Fiji Times, Biren Kumar, a Tacirua resident for the past 30 years, yesterday said this was the first time supply had been disrupted.
“From Sunday until now (Thursday) we have been without water,” he said.
“We’ve called the Water Authority of Fiji numerous times to ask them whether water trucks will visit the area. Sometimes they pick up our calls and other times the line is left ringing.”
Mr Kumar claimed as a result of his persistence, a WAF water truck visited his house on Wednesday, December 21 around 4pm.
“The water truck was the only one that visited our area since the water cut on Sunday and this only happened because I had to plead to them about three times just so they could fill up my tank and drums — I told my neighbour and the household across the road to bring their buckets and fill them up as well.”
He claimed that before the water truck visit on Wednesday, he was forced to make around two to three trips to the Wailoku Depot in his carrier to fill containers.
“To tell you the truth it’s been very hard because we don’t know how long we will be without water and to make it even worse there are no water trucks at all visiting the area.
“I am so lucky that I have the carrier but what about the other families? How will they survive?”
Twelve kilometres down the Kings Rd from Tacirua – another community was also affected by water disruptions.
Jone Nawaqaliva, a resident of Makoi, Nasinu, claimed they had been facing water issues since the beginning of the week.
“At times our water pressure is low and sometimes we have no water at all,” he said.
“We believe it’s because we are living on top of a hill, so when we have either water cuts or experience low pressure, a neighbour downhill from us will have water and good pressure.
“We’ve called for water trucks to fill up our buckets and bottles but so far none have visited our area and because of this we’ve had to take our buckets and bottles and have them filled up across the road at our neighbours house.”
Mr Nawaqaliva said Christmas was around the corner and although they would have a house full of children, the mood would certainly not be festive.
“If we were without electricity then that would be OK because we’d be able to survive but it’s quite hard for us because we have our families that are staying with us and we’ve got a house full of children.
“We hope that before Christmas our water pressure is at least normalised or we don’t get water disruptions. That would be the best Christmas present and a miracle for us here in Makoi.”
A statement issued by WAF said customers within the Nasinu, Tamavua Reservoir and Tovata water supply systems would be affected by the low flows in the Waimanu River raw water intake which was affecting production levels and causing low levels in reservoirs.
WAF urged customers to store sufficient amounts of water while it was available.
The areas affected were Nasinu Reservoir (PRB, Vasant Lal, Bryce, Tulele, Kaloa, Lower Caubati, Kinoya, Caubati, Manohan, Center Point, Laucala, Nokonoko, Koka, Kinoya road, Vasant Lal Vesivesi, Fletcher, Mukta Ben), Tacirua Reservoir (low pressure to no water — all feeding from Tacirua Reservoir — Tamavua Koro, Upper Ragg, Deovji St, Tacirua Bus garage, Amputch St, Princes Rd), Dokanisuva Reservoir – no water - all feeding from Dokanaisuva - Seventh Day church Dokanaisuva to Tacirua Fijian School, Vunuleba Settlement) and Coloisuva Reservoir (no water — all feeding from Colo-i-Suva - Naisogo, Colo-i-Suva Crest Chicken, Princes Rd, Marshall Rd, Taqairua, Vunikawai, Uluibeka, Colanaivau, Valesasa, Naitaqiri Nillgrey.)
WAF said water trucks were on standby and could be requested in the case of emergency by calling 5777 (all mobile networks).