Fiji’s Water Authority is urging customers to clear their water bills as soon as possible before they begin disconnecting supply to overdue accounts.
WAF Chief Operating Officer, Seru Soderberg, said they had given customers enough time to pay their bills in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it is also important to keep in mind that water treatment is an expensive process.
“When compared to other countries in the South Pacific region and the world, Fiji has one of the lowest water rates, at 15 cents for the first 1,000 litres – something that we are proud of being able to provide to the Fijian people,” Soderberg said.
“Additionally, Fijians with an annual income of less than $30,000, are continuing to benefit from the Government funded initiative of receiving 92,500 litres of water for free. However, the treatment of this water and all the work that is required to keep it at the standards required by the World Health Organisation is an expensive process.
“The grace period provided to customers from March last year, when COVID-19 first arrived in Fiji, was scheduled to end in March of this year, but was again extended when the second wave hit – the last thing we wanted to do was put our customers in a position of hardship.”
“In addition, customers had been provided with notices, including consistent reminders on our social media platforms, advising them to clear their bills if they were financially able, to avoid disconnections later on. Now, with the signs showing that we are headed towards recovery and a better, more settled place, we are urging our customers to help us, just as we have helped them during their time of need.”
Soderberg adds that for customers still facing hardships, avenues of assistance are available for genuine cases but this needs to be communicated to WAF teams.
“It is never our intention to disconnect customers without good reason and WAF teams will make every effort to make arrangements with customers, who still need the assistance, in clearing their bills – call and talk to us so that we can work something out.”
He also thanked all customers who had been regularly clearing their bills.
