Unity Fiji Party Leader Savenaca Narube has criticized past governments for their incompetence in addressing Fiji’s water infrastructure issues but has urged the Coalition government to prioritize daily water supply.

Narube has called on the government to reallocate expenses from non-priority areas and invest in fixing the aging water infrastructure and developments.

“I mean these are the sins of the past governments perhaps but whatever it is, people expect to turn on the taps, the water runs, to turn on the switch, the power comes on, to travel on the roads without dodging potholes. I mean those are some of the essential issues for the government. How can the government find money to do that?”

The former governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji emphasized the urgent need for government to take action and address Fiji’s water supply issues, without using past government incompetency as an excuse.

WAF CEO Amit Chanan, has also highlighted the issue of aging infrastructure contributing to ongoing water challenges in the country.

“Infrastructure issues are real and present issues and we have challenges with our aging pipe lines but this since March 14 has made the situation a lot worse so I think I’ve been quoted this a lot of times on a daily basis, we have a gap between supply and demand of three million litres and that is because of the challenge in infrastructures.”

Chanan has revealed that the prolonged dry weather spell has resulted in a gap of seven million litres of water between supply and demand.