By EDDIE OSIFELO
WORK on the $130 million Kongulai Water Treatment Plant and pipeline Project on North West Guadalcanal, is progressing slowly.
This came after the ground breaking ceremony of the project in February this year.
Solomon Water project manager for the project, Brian Fatai told media last Friday work is not as fast as they hope, due to number of factors.
He said this include the Covid 19 pandemic which made disruption to international traveling and global supply shortages, which has strain on construction sector.
In additional to this, Fatai said there are number contractual obligations that the contractor had yet to meet, key to them are insurance, construction environmental and social management plans that our donor partners are yet to approve and to meet their environmental and social requirement.
Further to this, he said they have given the contractor additional approval for commencement of works on site.
“This is only to do site clearance and site set up of offices and amenities.
“As you may all know, this project is a complex project, so there are number of activities that have undertaken at the site as well. So, this is for manufacturing of key equipment and all that,” he added.
However, Fatai said the contractor has assured Solomon Water that they will finish the work before the Pacific Games in November.
Apart from that, Solomon Water Chief Executive Officer, Ian Gooden said they have financial penalties.
“We do everything we can to help them get going quickly.
“There are number of parts of the plants are fabricated overseas, they are due in country in 14th April,” he added.
REAN PCS Joint Venture has won the contract to implement the project.
Rean Watertech is a water company specialising in delivering water and wastewater projects.
P.C. Snehal Construction Pvt. Ltd is an engineering and infrastructure company with over forty years of experience. Both companies are based in India.
Funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB), the joint venture will construct a water treatment plant up at Solomon water’s Kongulai pumping station with a capacity to treat 15 megalitres (million litres) of water per day through the use of clarifiers and filtration. Associated works include raw and treated water pump stations, pipe bridges, sludge ponds and site civil works and a new rising main up to the Tasahae reservoirs.
The joint venture will also train Solomon Water staff to operate and maintain the water treatment plant for a period of at least 12 months.
