Water Authority of Fiji is urging members of the public in Nadi and Lautoka area to boil drinking water as they may experience discoloured water in their water supply as a result of various improvement works being carried out in the Western Division.
The Authority says they are also currently installing five air‑valves to eliminate air locks in the reticulation system in the Nadi area.
The Authority has revealed that they have also launched an investigation into the suspected theft of 29 air‑valves which have been reported as missing following recent site inspections.
Based on preliminary site‑checks, the Authority has highlighted that a total of 20 air‑valves have been uninstalled from their chambers in Nadele to Votulevu Rice Mill, Malakua to Danny's Shop ‑ Korovuto in Nadi and another nine air‑valves have been removed from its chambers in the Varaciva and Waiwai areas in Ba.
While verifying the pipeline components and valve status from Nagado to the Votualevu Rice mill, in Nadi, Water Authority crew members identified a total of 11 out of the 15 air‑valves that were installed under the DN600 pipeline project were missing and are to assumed to be stolen, also missing are the slabs of the washout valves.
Water Authority’s General Manager Customer Services, Sekove Uluinayau is pleading with members of the public in the Nadi and Ba areas to come forward with any information regarding the alleged theft of air‑valves.
He says the Authority is committed to their work and it is unfortunate that some people take this as an opportunity to make some kind of gain out of this but little do they know that they are depriving water supply to the village or community in the elevated areas of Nadi or in Ba.
The DN600 pipeline project which was cross‑connected at two locations, Votualevu Rice Mill & Nadele top, during the recent Nagado Water Shutdown in September were supposed to be tested last weekend before commissioning the pipeline this week.
The project is aimed at boosting water supply to the existing DN500 that caters for Nadi along the back road and towards the Southern end and is part of the planned improvement works to the Nadi water system.
The matter is currently under investigation and has been referred to the Fiji Police Force.
The Authority is currently in the process of replacing these valves by transporting 10 valves from Suva to Nadi and works are expected to be completed by tomorrow.
