Residents in Lautoka are being urged to store water with a partial water shutdown in the Western division effective for six days from Thursday.

In a statement, the Water Authority of Fiji will be undertaking urgent repairs after major leakages along the Vaturu-Nagado high pressure pipeline.

The partial water shutdown is expected to disrupt water supply in elevated residential areas of Lautoka City from 10pm Thursday until 6am Tuesday.

WAF General Manager Customer Services and Acting General Manager Operations, Sekove Uluinayau says they will be able to supply water to majority of areas in Nadi, while undertaking the partial planned shutdown to allow repairs to a major leakage on the high-pressure water pipeline from the Vaturu Dam to the Nagado Water Treatment Plant.

Uluinayau says the leakage is suspected to be a result of burst or worn out rubber from the joiner with approximately one thousand liters per day been lost as a result.

Uluinayau says WAF has decided to carry out the repairs during the Easter long-weekend as the leakage continues to deteriorate, and if it is left unattended it would be catastrophic, leaving thousands of customers without water supply for weeks.

He says to sufficiently satisfy water requirements over the partial shutdown period, each household should store at least 200 litres of water to sustain them during the disruption period for drinking and cooking purposes.

In addition, WAF will be placing around a hundred, 5,200 litre and 10,000 litre water tanks at strategic locations in affected areas.

WAF will ensure that during the partial shutdown period there will be minimal interruption to the major services such as hospitals, schools and hotels as 19 water carting trucks will be deployed to cart water as well 2 four wheel drive twin cabs carting 1000 litre water tanks to service inaccessible areas and smaller roads.

Meanwhile, customers are to contact the Authority’s National Contact Centre on 1507 or email [email protected] for any clarification or water carting assistance.