Mr Makala issued the order over the weekend during his tour to water projects implemented in the district where he learnt that most of them were abandoned while others had a number of shortfalls.
Despite reports showing that some projects were completed, it was discovered that they have not been useful to the people and had many shortfalls, which needed to be worked on for the projects to be sustainable.
“It seems that all contractors ran away from these projects since June last year. Some of them failed to proceed with the work due to financial constraints. But others were paid their money and yet they abandoned the projects,” Mr Makala observed.
He added: “I want all the contractors to come back and conclude their work… we will prosecute those who have abandoned the projects while they had already been paid if they won’t heed to this order … the government cannot accept such loss while people have no access to water,” Mr Makala vowed.
He however, noted that through the tour, he also discovered a number of shortfalls within the region, including poor supervision of the projects, lack of skilled personnel and poor cooperation between the water department and the council.
Following the situation, the RC formed a committee comprised of four people to investigate all water projects in the area and give recommendations basing on the findings.
Mid-last month, during the commemoration of the 6th Africa Water Week, Minister for Water and Irrigation, Engineer Gerson Lwenge said that government has placed priority on water sector by allocating 1 trillion/- in this year’s budget. Mr Lwenge said that through the budget, the stalled projects will be revived and new ones implemented to make sure that the entire population in the country has access to the precious liquid.
He said the government has gone further in improving water access in the country whereby currently the rural population access the precious liquid by 65 per cent while in urban by 75 per cent.
No comments:
Post a Comment