Illegal Connections Larger than First Thought: SIWA

The Solomon Islands Water Authority, SIWA, says that the amount of illegal water connections throughout Honiara is quite significant and will continue to cause water outage in most of Honiara.

Residents in some parts of Honiara have been without water for almost a year, prompting SIWA to establish a survey to gauge the cause and the extent of the problem.

Ray Andersen, the Head of SIWA's Engineering Department says water from the main source at Kongulae remains below sufficient levels to feed the whole town, illegal connections has "exacerbated the problem."

Ray Andersen says this is causing the continuous water outages experienced in most parts of the capital.

Mr Andersen says the water level has not made any significant improvement, and will take some time before the problem of water outages can be resolved.

Mr Andersen says the survey on illegal water connections in Honiara has shown that "there are more than a thousand illegal connections." Mr Andersen has admitted that this is much more than previously thought. "This could involve a lot more work than previously thought and SIWA will be taking a step by step process to address the issue."

Mr Andersen says that as settlements in the fringes of Honiara continue to expand, illegal connections will continue to contribute to water leakages "as well as loss of revenue, affecting operations and efforts by SIWA to provide good water services to customers."