1. Authority constructs $25M plant but no water to treat
2. Cumuto being denied promised supply
In the midst of a severe drought a $25 million Water Treatment Plant installed at Cumuto remains empty almost one year after completion. The two massive tanks were installed to treat and distribute four million gallons of water per day–to users in Cumuto and environs–with supplies from wells. However, a Sunday Guardian investigation reveals that to date, sinking of the wells, which was supposed to supply the tanks with water, has come to a halt. The project, which began in June of 2006 and was expected to take 15 months to be done, is yet to be completed. The treatment plant was built by Uem Gem Ltd, while another company was responsible for sinking the wells.
Tanks remain empty
When Sunday Guardian visited Tractor Pool Road site on Wednesday, only road paving works were in progress on the compound of the plant. Apart from two buckets on site, both massive tanks remained empty. Asked if the plant was operative, one worker who requested anonymity replied: "There is no water so obviously the plant cannot operate. If there is no water the plant cannot work." The handful of residents in the community believe their complaints for water have fallen on deaf ears.
ABOVE: ?These two empty water tanks sit on the ground of the treatment plant designed to make water available to certain parts of the country.
Plant idle for a year
Efforts to contact chief executive officer of Uem Gem, Raj Kush Waha proved futile. However, a company official confirmed that the plant has been lying idle for the past year awaiting the precious commodity. "It has been completed just about one year now. The plant was built to receive water, treat it, and then pump the water to those awaiting distribution. As far as our scope of work is concerned we have completed the job but there is no water to treat. I really do not want to get into it, so I think WASA will be able to say why there is no water in the plant. We have to get water before it is treated; we have been waiting for one year now."
Former WASA chairman: Where are the wells?
It was the then board headed by former chairman, Barry Barnes that approved construction of the plant. Barnes, who is now an adviser to the Minister of Energy, Conrad Enill, when contacted Friday, could not recall which company was awarded the contract to drill the wells. "If I am to remember, there was a project for that area but it was not built in my time; it was built some time thereafter. The contract may have been awarded during my tenure but built after I left. "If I remember, for that project wells would have had to be drilled because there was not any existing at that time. The project was geared towards improving the availability of water in the particular area because no one could have anticipated this crisis.
"The Water Resources Agency would have had to determine a project for the wells to be drilled. In fact, there were wells the United States Army would have drilled in Cumuto during their time of occupation in 1945. There is a water table in Cumuto and obviously the project was for the Water Treatment Plant to be served by the well field in Cumuto. "I can only make the assumption that the plant is empty because no wells were ever drilled."
WASA: Shoddy work done
As to what went wrong to delay the operations of the plant, communications specialist of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Ellen Lewis said the contract for the drilling and equipping of the wells in Cumuto was awarded to a certain company (name called). The contract calls for the drilling and equipping of five production wells and one observation well. Under that contract Cumuto Well Number One and Cumuto Well Number Two were drilled. "The contract was terminated by the authority due to the unsatisfactory performance of the contractor and the fact that the Water Resources Agency indicated that after re-evaluation of the Cumuto aquifer the drilling, equipping and operations of five new production wells in Cumuto was not recommended due to falling water levels. Other sources of ground water are being identified."
With regards to the delay of the project, Lewis said physical works are still on-going and is scheduled to be completed early next month, after which the testing and commissioning of the plant would commence. Lewis said, "After successful testing and commissioning of the plant, electrical, mechanical, instrumentation, and process systems, the plant would be formally taken over by the Authority. "It should be noted that the Cumuto Water Treatment Plant is one part of a larger water development project, and the operations of the plant depends on all the other project elements being completed."