Fijians have received an early Christmas present after the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, announced they would have an extra month to apply for a bill waiver from the Water Authority of Fiji (WAF).
The waiver program – launched by the Prime Minister in October – was due to come to an end on New Year’s Eve, but now householders have until January 31st to apply.
The Prime Minister said that after Cyclone Evan destroyed the homes and livelihoods of many Fijians, he did not want them to have the added concern of meeting the December 31st deadline.
“We wanted all those who were scrambling to meet the December deadline to have one less thing to worry about over this holiday season,” he said.
The Prime Minister encouraged all eligible Fijians who have not yet applied to make use of the extra time.
He said that his Government had given more than $13 million to the program, and he wanted to make sure that the full amount was used.
So far, there have been almost 1,000 successful applications, and a total of $2,615,000 in water bill arrears has been forgiven.
The Prime Minister said that there is still more than $10,000,000 available for deserving Fijian families.
Fijians are reminded that there are specific criteria that will be used to assess applications. These criteria are as follows:
• Customer has experienced leakages in their water pipes and/or taps
• Customer has recently had their bill amount raised after being undercharged for a long period
• Customer has received a first-time bill for accumulated usage over the years
Schools and religious organisations that have accumulated arrears prior to 2010 - before WAF was established - will also be eligible under the program.
Those wishing to apply for a waiver must fill out a Waiver Application Form and a Customer Information form. Both of these forms are available at all WAF offices. Customers can also download these from the Authority’s
website www.waterauthority.com.fj
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