17 May 2019

Honiara water supply increasingly affected by logging

11:08 am on 17 May 2019

Water supplies in the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, are being increasingly affected by logging upstream from the catchment.

There were reports from inspections carried out on site by Solomon Water of possible sources of the turbidity (dirty water) at Kongulai Water Source.

Logging at Kongulai Water Source. Photo: SIWA

Rapacious logging has seen the country's forests cleared by both legal and illegal loggers with little environmental oversight.

Last week, two logging sites upstream from the Kongalai catchment - where 40 percent of Honiara's water comes from - were blamed for the intake's shut down.

Solomons Water chief executive Ian Gooden says he's working with the government to close the logging sites.

"Even once these operations are shut down the damage is done, so we will continue to have sediment coming into the water system for months to come. Unless we can go in and revegetate or put silt traps or sediment fences in, that sediment's going to continue coming for a long time."