Shania Shayal Prasad 
The Water Authority of Fiji is looking at alternatives, such as improving their billing system, to prioritize debt recovery.
Chief Executive Dr Amit Chanan says the unpaid bill has accumulated for a couple of years and currently stands at $28 million, and this is affecting their financial viability and corporate plan.
He states that they are not only focusing on disconnection but rather ensuring that everybody is given an opportunity to pay their bills.
“One is to improve our billing system and have the ability to almost ignore those nuisance text messages that you get from other utilities. So we don’t have that ability at the moment, but we are implementing it. So it’ll remind people that your bill is overdue; please go and pay, and you might get that a few times a day.”
While highlighting the importance of extending their reach in digital space, Dr Chanan also says that they will be doing certain targeted disconnections as well.
WAF adds that the bill recovery is challenging as the process is slow, but with innovative and effective ways, they will be able to fast-track the collection.
Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.
