Brick On Suva's

Doctor Drops A

Water Problem

From a Suva correspondent With their average annual rainfall of 120 in., Suva residents

frequently feel depressingly damp

—but they weren’t damp in De cember.

While weather forecasters searched anxiously for rain clouds, water was being consumed at a voracious rate of more than four million gallons a day—considerably more than the daily amount received in the water treatment plant from the catchment area at Suva.

Suggested solutions ranged from shutting off Suva’s water supply for a number of hours each day to Dr.

W. L. Verrier’s “brick in the cistern” proposal.

The latter brought more amuse ment than approval, despite the fact that the Duke of Edinburgh was once reported to have made a similar sug gestion when England was experienc ing water problems.

As Dr. Verrier pointed out, after failing in his attempt to have the matter discussed at the Legislative Council session, toilet cisterns use a great deal of water.

He estimated that the Suva water supply served about 8,500 “water closets”. If each was flushed 10 times daily, he said, that was about 210,000 gallons down the drain.

A brick or a bag of small stones in the cistern, amounting to about one third of a gallon, would effect a water saving of up to 30,000 gal lons a day!

He urged the Minister for Com munications, Works and Tourism, Mr.

C. A. Stinson, to begin a “Put a Brick in the Cistern” campaign.

A more lasting solution was the government’s announcement that Suva would have a new $240,000 pumping station operating by Dec ember, 1969, capable of pumping six million gallons of water a day from the Waimanu River.

This will be in addition to the water available from the high-level areas of the existing catchment at Savura.

The pumping station, for which pumps and engines will be delivered from the UK next July, is being built on the banks of the Waimanu River, about U miles upsteam from the Adi Cakobau School.

In addition to the cost of build ing and the purchase of pumps and engines, new pumping mains will cost $lBO,OOO.

During Suva’s last bad drought— in December, 1965—water consump tion was at the rate of 3i million gallons a day.

It was estimated that if the water had been available during last month’s hot dry spell, householders would have happily used about five million gallons a day.

To prevent this, water pressure was reduced at certain times and residents urged to be as parsimonious as possible with the precious fluid.

Even visiting liners were requested to take on as little water as pos sible.