{"id":383972,"date":"2026-01-01T03:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/383972\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T03:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:59:07","slug":"public-warned-to-avoid-nabua-stream-after-toxic-discharge-kills-eels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/383972\/","title":{"rendered":"Public warned to avoid Nabua stream after toxic discharge kills eels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Toxic discharge from an underground culvert near the Nabua Sewerage<br \/>\nPump Station has resulted in several dead eels in the stream located<br \/>\nbeneath the Jerusalem Road bridge in Nabua, Suva and as a critical<br \/>\nprecautionary measure, the Department of Environment strongly advises<br \/>\nthe public to avoid any form of use until further notice.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of<br \/>\nEnvironment says they received a report at approximately 3:43pm on<br \/>\nTuesday that a bluish discoloration was observed at the stream<br \/>\nlocated beneath the bridge.\n<\/p>\n<p>They say officers<br \/>\nfrom the Department immediately conducted a site inspection and<br \/>\ntraced the source of the discharge to an underground culvert near the<br \/>\nNabua Sewerage Pump Station.<\/p>\n<p>The Department says<br \/>\nafter deploying drones, officers conducted an aerial survey to trace<br \/>\nthe source and assess the extent of the discharge.<\/p>\n<p>The inspection<br \/>\nconfirmed that raw sewage was overflowing from the culvert and<br \/>\ndischarging directly into the stream, where it mixed with the bluish<br \/>\nsubstance observed in the water.<\/p>\n<p>The Department<br \/>\nconfirms that investigations have established\u00a0that the Nabua Sewerage<br \/>\nPump Station had been non-operational since Christmas, causing sewage<br \/>\nto back up and spill into the waterway.<\/p>\n<p>They have assessed<br \/>\nthat the bluish substance was likely disposed of into the sewerage<br \/>\nsystem upstream and was subsequently released into the stream as a<br \/>\nresult of the pump station failure.<\/p>\n<p>The Department says<br \/>\nthey are working closely with the Water Authority of Fiji and the<br \/>\nSuva City Council to contain the incident, assess environmental<br \/>\nimpacts, and prevent any further discharge.<\/p>\n<p>They confirm the<br \/>\npump station has since been restored to operational status, and the<br \/>\nbluish discoloration in the stream has dissipated naturally.<\/p>\n<p>They say<br \/>\nenvironmental monitoring and investigations remain ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>Permanent Secretary<br \/>\nof Environment and Climate Change, Dr Sivendra Micheal says the<br \/>\nsafety of the public and the protection of Fiji\u2019s environment<br \/>\nremain their top priorities.<\/p>\n<p>He says they will<br \/>\ncontinue to monitor the situation closely, implement corrective<br \/>\nactions, and keep communities informed as investigations progress.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Micheal adds the<br \/>\nDepartment of Environment treats this incident with utmost<br \/>\nseriousness and remains committed to safeguarding public health and<br \/>\nFiji\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n<p>Further questions have been sent to the Water Authority of Fiji and the Dr Micheal.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toxic discharge from an underground culvert near the Nabua Sewerage Pump Station has resulted in several dead eels&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,206448,128,338],"class_list":["post-383972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment-feature","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}