City faces water problem

 WATER disruption in Mt Hagen will continue because of generator failure caused by ongoing and long periods of power outages.

Water PNG supplies the bulk of the water for the capital of Western Highlands.

Mt Hagen Business Centre manager Eluid Mayarom said the generator was still down. 

“It had been working over its normal capacity during the lengthy power outage to pump water daily, often for more than four hours,” Mayarom said.

“Due to landowner issues, Water PNG has not constructed any reservoir to store and ration water so it’s currently operating on direct pumping.

 “Our operations manager Kenneth Zale, who is currently in the Highlands region, is working hard to fix the generator.”

Mayaron said water and power were interchangeable and depended on each other to work effectively so with the current ongoing power outages, customers in Mt Hagen town would face water disruptions regularly.

He said while work was underway to construct a new reservoir for Mt Hagen as a long-term plan, Water PNG would continue to use a standby generator to provide power to boost water supply to Mt Hagen during outages. 

“However, the lengthy  outages that last more than 48 hours are not economical for us and decreases the life of our generators.

“We have tried to contact our friends at the PNG Power office but to date there has been no assurance that power outages will be rectified soon.”

Water PNG chief operating officer Billy Imar said: “This is a serious situation, and while we are accommodating this problem, it will be very challenging for our customers in Hagen in the coming weeks, so we have to deal with it smartly.

“We encourage our customers to use and store water wisely.”

He said once the generator is fixed then water will flow as usual to the city city.

“The situation now is really hard to control but we are working on it and it will be completed soon and water will flow into the city,” he said, urging the consumers to be patient.