Over the weekend Solomon Water turned off its Kongulai Pump Station and Gravity Supply system, which supplies about 40% of its customers in Honiara.
This caused many Honiara residences to be without water for more than 48 hours. The shutdown was due to the high turbidity (silt and dirt particles in the water) experienced upstream due to heavy rains at our Kongulai water source.
Solomon Water Acting Chief Executive Officer, Unni Kesavan said “the action to turn off supply was necessary to ensure that water distributed to our customers is safe and of good quality. During wet weather water is unsafe for distribution. If we continue producing water during this time the disinfection process cannot kill any bacteria, making it potentially unsafe and posing a health risk to customers. It will also clog pipes and customers’ facilities.”
This shutdown is a direct consequence of ongoing illegal and unmanaged logging in the Kohove and Kongulai catchment areas, and is outside of Solomon Water’s control. Solomon Water is working on the construction of a new treatment plant for Kongulai. The plant is currently in design stage and will be operational in 2021.
Solomon Water apologises to its customers for the inconvenience caused to them. Customers still receiving water are advised to boil all water for food preparation and consumption.
We are constantly monitoring the situation and will turn on supply as soon as we consider it safe to do so.
For more information, please call us on phone: 23985 or email: service@solomonwater.com.sb or visit us at facebook:www.facebook.com/SolomonWater