21 May 2008

Samoa Water Authority defends water pipe conditions

9:38 am on 21 May 2008

The Samoan water authority says it's not distributing contaminated water to residents in Apia.

The World Health Organisation continues to accuse Samoa of not doing enough to address the severity of typhoid, saying the main hospital sees up to 12 suspected typhoid cases a day.

It says the most probable source of the disease is contaminated water caused by leaking, colonial water pipes serving Apia.

The water authority's general manager, Tainau Titimaea, dismisses this and says they are currently exchanging the colonial steel pipes.

"Actually we're replacing the pipes in a programme, which we actually take from our plans and our drawings and then we know which pipes we need to replace. We've replaced most of the ones of the German times, we are now replacing them with plastic pipes."

Tainau Titimaea says the water supply in Apia is not contaminated and the problems must originate from somewhere else.