[Photo: FILE]

Growing dry conditions linked to El Niño are putting increasing pressure on water supplies.

Emergency water deliveries are already being sent to some maritime islands.

The government is now preparing for the possibility that the dry spell could continue into the early months of next year.

Ministry of Public Works Acting Deputy Secretary Operations Mikaele Belena told the Standing Committee on Social Affairs that the government has activated an El Niño response structure involving key agencies.

The infrastructure cluster includes the Water Authority of Fiji and Energy Fiji Limited, while the National Disaster Management Office is being kept informed through regular updates.

Belena states the impact is no longer only being monitored.

“We’ve started to cart water to some of the maritime islands that are already experiencing the effect of the El Niño and also the dry spell that we are going through at the
moment.”

The immediate concern is whether existing water sources can sustain communities if the dry period continues.

Belena said the government was still assessing the situation, but contingency plans are already being considered.

“At the moment, we are still in the monitoring stage.”

Permanent Secretary for Public Works Paula Baleilevuka says money provided through NDMO to pay vessels involved in water-carting is not reaching the service providers.

“The money that is coming from NDMO to pay for the vessels to cart water is not going to the vessels. It’s going back to the Ministry of Finance as revenue.”

The Ministry can be called upon to provide trucks, equipment and personnel for government operations but Baleilevuka says funding for those services does not always reach the department that is actually carrying out the work.

He pointed to the provision of trucks and drivers for sugarcane harvesting as another example.

The funding issue takes on greater significance as Fiji prepares for potentially prolonged dry conditions.

Belena said the Ministry was continuing to assess the situation through weekly coordination meetings while WAF is monitoring its own water sources and taking measures in areas where supplies are under pressure.