The Water Authority of Fiji will try to recover some of its lost revenue in the next financial year which they lost by suspending disconnection fees.

The Authority is forgoing over $28m in revenue by suspending disconnected fees to thousands of Fijians from May to July.

Chief Executive Barry Omundson says this was done in a bid to provide relief to Fijians affected by the impacts of COVID-19.

However, WAF’s COVID-19 relief policy is coming to an end this financial year and there are no plans to renew it.

“We are part of government so we work with the government to do what we can for the Fijian people. We have one element that’s coming to an end on the 31st of July and that’s the disconnection policy. So note that some people have chosen not to pay but come the new (financial) year that is August we need to recruit some of that revenue.”

Omundson says a number of their capital projects have been put on hold.

“Some of the projects we’ve rolled over to the new year to be part of our new budget. But as I’ve said before really come January, six months into a year we have a less than 30 percent complete in our budget. So we needed to consolidate. So we had to roll over anyway because there is no way we were going to achieve them at this stage.”

The Authority maintains that clean and consistent water supply to all Fijians will continue to be their priority.