Lae city is currently experiencing water problems after one of its bores stopped working on Monday.
Of the seven bores located along the Unitech road, only four were working to supply the city until the issue yesterday evening, leaving only three functioning bores.
Water PNG senior manager, Martin Bigiglen, highlighted that production is very low and cannot meet the city’s demand. Though 1,300 kilolitres of water an hour is the required output, Water PNG is currently producing 630 kilolitres an hour.
“That’s half of the demand,” he stated.
“With that sort of load, you cannot meet city demand.
“Previously we went down to 1,100 so there was supply going through.
“Our bores are going down because of continuous power blackouts,” he added.
“We rely on power. If it goes on and off regularly, that damage is equivalent.
“When power goes off, everything goes off.”
Water PNG staff were working on bore 6 today to figure out the reason behind the malfunction.
Bigiglen said the spares for the bores are imported from Australia. While the cables have reached them, they are waiting for the motors to arrive from Port Moresby.
“We should have them here this afternoon or tomorrow morning then we should restore one or two bores and we should be back to normal.”
(Water PNG staff working on bore 6)
