The principal of a college affected by a lack of water in the Cook Islands earlier this week says the department of water works needs to fix the problem of debris blocking water intakes.
Heavy rain caused major disruptions for residents, businesses in Rarotonga and some schools had to close due to the blockages and lack of water.
The problem was fixed the following day, but the acting principal of Nukutere College, George Rasmussen, says it is annoying as it happens often.
He says it disrupted the first day of the term.
He questions how much longer people will have to put up having no water, every time there's a downpour.
"One of our teachers rang and they said 'oh yeah, its that same old blockage.' Well forget about the same old, get it sorted. If you multiply the hours of loss by the number of students just within our school and expand that across the business and communities in the way people are affected, sometimes I think we take these things too much for granted and deal with them rather than say get it sorted and stop the nonsense."
George Rasmussen the principal of Nukutere College.
The director of Water Works in Cook Islands, Ben Parakoti, says addressing the problem will take some time as maintenance work currently under way is focussing on replacing old pipes.
