The boil water notice on the main American Samoan island of Tutuila should be completely lifted by December next year, the Power Authority says.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The notice was the result of the US Environmental Protection Agency classifying nine of the central water system's groundwater wells as "Groundwater Under Direct Influence of Surface Water".
Since the notice was issued in March 2010, the authority said it had "aggressively pursued" its removal by December 2019.
It was following a two-pronged strategy to address the problem by treating the affected water and by drilling new groundwater wells.
More than $US5 million had been spent to address the problem and an additional $US6.7 million would be spent to resolve it, the authority said.
The funding is coming from the agency.
Initially, about 50,000 people were being asked to boil their drinking water but the authority said that number was now about 18,000.
