Dr. Chris Oghenechovwen, Delta State Commissioner for Water Resources at the premises of the Warri/Effurun Water Supply Project

Tejiri Ebikeme/Frank Efe

DELTA State Commissioner for Water Resources, Dr. Chris Oghenechovwen,  today in Warri, has given a matching order to both the consultant and contractor handling the Warri/Effurun Water Supply Project to speed up work on the job or be ready to face the full wrath of the state government.

The Commissioner along with some officials of the Ministry was scheduled to inspect jobs being done by the contractors in parts of Warri and Effurun.

But the Commissioner at the site of the Water Project in Warri discovered from briefs he received from both the contractor and consultants that not much had been done in the rehabilitation of the pipes laid in Warri and Effurun about twenty years ago and he then called off the inspection tour.

While expressing disappointment with the handling of the project expected to pump water to millions of homes, the Commissioner said that; “You have failed us by your action today. You have shown that you not ready. The Governor knows that we are here and we promised the world for so long that we are going to release water to them at so and so times. You have continued with your team to frustrate the supply of water to our people.”

He added; “I therefore use this medium to express in strong terms our displeasure at the pace at which the work is going on. The information you gave us is extremely wrong because if we are going to visit about 15 locations across the two local government areas where water is supposed to be flowing  and now you are telling us to go to only one street, it does not make sense at all. We have told you that the essence of what we are doing is to push water out of this place to the people.”

The visible angry Commissioner also expressed his displeasure over the manner both the contractor and the consultant had flagrantly disregarded his order to construct stand taps in some major parts of both Warri and Effurun, even as he said they had assured him that they have done 75 percent of the job only for him to come and see that they have not done anything.

He said; “For the last three weeks we have been speaking on daily basis and we have agreed water is going to flow in that about 20 locations across the two towns. And the only way that water can be visible is when it comes out. We now insisted on putting a programme of stand taps which up till 48 hours ago you assured me and the state government that you can now supply water to about 78 percent of those areas agreed upon.”

However, the consultant, Engineer Denis Ofodile blamed the slow pace of work on rusted pipelines which he said they have been battling to repair for the past one month.

He therefore promised that by the end of this weekend all the damaged pipelines would have been repaired and water is going to flow to all the locations across both Warri and Effurun axis.

He said; “Work is going on in the areas we have marked and water is now flowing in some areas. Unfortunately, two days ago we discovered that some of the places we have repaired have gone bad again. So we have to start all over again.

On his part the contractor, Samuel Arowosafe put the blame on the consultant saying that they have covered about 90 percent of the areas giving to them by the consultant.