Fenaka Corporation has said that it is working to deliver an additional variable frequency drive (VFD) to Addu as residents in the city’s connected island districts spend a third day without running water.

Fenaka Managing Director Muaz Mohamed Rasheed said the water outage was caused due to a problem with the reverse osmosis (RO) plant’s VFD. A VFD was brought to Addu from Malé yesterday, however, water service was not resumed as the part failed to function, he said.

A VFD is a type of AC motor drive that controls the speed and torque of the water plant by varying the frequency of the input current. The VDF controls the associated voltage, or current variation, depending on topology.

“We now have another VFD, from the MNDF [Maldives National Defence Force], and we are working with MWSC [Maldives Water and Sewerage Company] engineers to test the drive. Once the testing is completed, we will charter a Maldivian flight to send it there [to Addu],” Rasheed said.

The four most populous islands in Addu were cut off from water service last Thursday morning. Fenaka and MWSC engineers have been working together to resolve the issue.

While Rasheed said there were challenges in resolving the issue as VFDs have to be acquired from abroad, many residents are expressing frustration over the outage.