[File Photo]

Water Authority Board Chair Bhavesh Patel says in the last 11 years the authority has spent over one billion dollars in water projects and infrastructure.

Patel says the authority is appalled at the false and misleading information being spread by some politicians.

The Board Chair says since 2010 to 2019/2020 financial year the Authority has connected more villages and settlements to water.

He says they invested in 611 rural projects and 949 urban projects.

Patel says in 2010 576,941 Fijians were connected to clean treated water whose infrastructure has been upgraded in 10 years and last year the customer numbers increased to 647,556.

WAF Board Chair says there has been massive rural to urban drift and now thousands of people live in the Suva Nausori corridor which has put a considerable strain on their current infrastructure.

He says this drift was foreseen and plans were put in place to find a new source of raw water and build a new treatment plant.

Patel says they are building infrastructure to reduce the strain and Viria project is one of their major projects.

He adds new upgrades and treatment plants that have been commissioned in Namau and further projects set to be commissioned this year which include Nagado, Waiwai, Savusavu, Vunidawa, Nabouwalu, and Pacific Harbor.