Toxic discharge from an underground culvert near the Nabua Sewerage
\nPump Station has resulted in several dead eels in the stream located
\nbeneath the Jerusalem Road bridge in Nabua, Suva and as a critical
\nprecautionary measure, the Department of Environment strongly advises
\nthe public to avoid any form of use until further notice.<\/p>\n
The Department of
\nEnvironment says they received a report at approximately 3:43pm on
\nTuesday that a bluish discoloration was observed at the stream
\nlocated beneath the bridge.\n<\/p>\n
They say officers
\nfrom the Department immediately conducted a site inspection and
\ntraced the source of the discharge to an underground culvert near the
\nNabua Sewerage Pump Station.<\/p>\n
The Department says
\nafter deploying drones, officers conducted an aerial survey to trace
\nthe source and assess the extent of the discharge.<\/p>\n
The inspection
\nconfirmed that raw sewage was overflowing from the culvert and
\ndischarging directly into the stream, where it mixed with the bluish
\nsubstance observed in the water.<\/p>\n
The Department
\nconfirms that investigations have established\u00a0that the Nabua Sewerage
\nPump Station had been non-operational since Christmas, causing sewage
\nto back up and spill into the waterway.<\/p>\n
They have assessed
\nthat the bluish substance was likely disposed of into the sewerage
\nsystem upstream and was subsequently released into the stream as a
\nresult of the pump station failure.<\/p>\n
The Department says
\nthey are working closely with the Water Authority of Fiji and the
\nSuva City Council to contain the incident, assess environmental
\nimpacts, and prevent any further discharge.<\/p>\n
They confirm the
\npump station has since been restored to operational status, and the
\nbluish discoloration in the stream has dissipated naturally.<\/p>\n
They say
\nenvironmental monitoring and investigations remain ongoing.<\/p>\n
Permanent Secretary
\nof Environment and Climate Change, Dr Sivendra Micheal says the
\nsafety of the public and the protection of Fiji\u2019s environment
\nremain their top priorities.<\/p>\n
He says they will
\ncontinue to monitor the situation closely, implement corrective
\nactions, and keep communities informed as investigations progress.<\/p>\n
Dr Micheal adds the
\nDepartment of Environment treats this incident with utmost
\nseriousness and remains committed to safeguarding public health and
\nFiji\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n
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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[128402,111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-211259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-environment-feature","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}