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The N8 billion Mangu Regional Water Project at Gindiri, 80km Southeast of Jos in Plateau state, may have been abandoned by the contractor handling the construction of the dam and access roads, Transproject Nigeria Ltd.
The contract, awarded in 2002 by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, has so far gulped billions of naira, Sunday Trust investigations reveal. But our reporter, who was at the project site, found that the contractor building the dam left the site sometime last year after moving in since 2004. Only a little work has been done so far in building the dam itself. Some Bulgarian partners working with the company were said to have left the country after a certain dispute, Sunday Trust learnt. But work on the treatment plant, handled by a Chinese firm, has been concluded. The plant could only be operated when the dam is completed, an expert said. When our reporter visited site of the water works three weeks ago, it was discovered that the China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGC) has completed the treatment plant since June 2007 and has been awaiting the Federal Government to take over the plant which has been lying unutilised since then. Mr. Emmanuel Yohanna, CGC's Assistant Project Manager on site, who spoke with Sunday Trust, said, “Our job is 100 per cent completed but at present there is no water for the machines to start operating. It has been tested already. We got water from the nearby river to do the testing. So they have been tested and found to be working satisfactorily.” But the one-year liability period which is one of the terms of the contract will lapse in June this year. This may become a subject of litigation since the Federal Government has not gone to take over the project even though CGC had invited it to come and take over, one expert told Sunday Trust. For now all transactions regarding the contract remains shrouded in secrecy. Several attempts made by Sunday Trust to obtain reactions from the builders of the dam, Transproject Nig. Ltd, the consultant (AIM Consultants) and the client, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources on certain issues raised were met with stiff obstacles. But a senior official who would not want to be named said, "Transproject is out of the thing for now and the construction of the dam will be re-awarded." Another source at the ministry said the company (Transproject) will be prosecuted. However a source close to Transproject said the company may soon sue the federal government to claim damages. For now it is not clear yet who will prosecute who. When our reporter visited the site, Musa Maren, the dam site engineer declined comments saying he had no authority to talk on any issue. He also refused to give us telephone numbers of the officer he said had the authority to pass any comments, saying the officer had lost his handsets and may not be using the former numbers. When our reporter eventually called Musa Shugaba of Transproject, he said he would not comment because he did not know whom he was speaking with. "How do I know whether it is somebody that is after my life?" he asked. Shugaba also declined request by the reporter to meet him one-on-one at a location of his choice. Also, all efforts to speak with the authorities of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources in the last three weeks proved abortive. When our reporter contacted the director in charge of Dams and Irrigation at the ministry Marcus Gundiri, he said he had no authority to speak on the matter and advised Sunday Trust to contact AIM Consultants, the firm that is responsible to the ministry for ensuring that the job is done according to terms and specifications. But AIM Consultant’s resident engineer Mr. Kanu also said he needed the authorisation of the ministry to divulge any information regarding the project. "AIM can’t divulge any information without the consent and approval of their client," Kanu said. Attempts to get comments from the Minister of State for Water Resources Demola Seriki yielded no result even after promises were made by the press unit of the ministry that the minister was going to respond to a questionnaire sent to him penultimate week ago. In the questionnaire, Sunday Trust sought to get the minister’s comments on the status of the Mangu water project, the funds so far released and whether the ministry is aware that the contractor building the dam had abandoned the site. But an aide of the minister said since the contract was not awarded in the life of the present administration, the minister may not be disposed to making any comments on the issues. Locals at Gindiri, site of the water project, said Transproject Nig Ltd which had moved to site in 2004 before the Chinese company came in had dragged on at site until its activities came to a standstill sometime last year. The security men guarding abandoned equipments at the site claimed that they have not been paid for upward of one year and cannot leave the job because they have been entrusted with valuables and could be prosecuted if the equipment are stolen or vandalised. However, one source close to Transproject who pleaded anonymity said the company had to stop work because of the skyrocketing price of diesel. "You know the work is diesel driven. When the contract was awarded, the price of diesel was N20 per litre but today it is N120 per litre. So the contract needs to be reviewed," he said. The official also said the initial crisis that greeted the location of the dam at Gindiri contributed to the delays witnessed in takeoff of construction work. He also said that intervening rainy seasons had also caused some impediments. "You know some communities were hostile to the decision to site the dam where it is now and so work did not take off fully in time." But when reminded that CGC was also faced with the same situation, he said CGC’s operation is "not diesel driven." Meanwhile the Plateau state government which is also supposed to provide a counterpart funding of close to N4 billion to lay pipes across the communities to be served is said to have contracted CGC to do a survey, which has been completed, Sunday Trust learnt. Recently the state’s commissioner for Water Resources, Idi Ibrahim Waziri, said that the state requires N2 billion to complete the project. Speaking with our reporter, the immediate past transition committee chairman of Mangu Local Government, Mr. Danjuma Haruna, who is also a Civil Engineer said: "Mangu local government has a very peculiar water problem. It is in the light of this that both the federal and state governments thought it wise to site this project here. I went round recently and saw the level of work; I saw that the Treatment Plant has been completed but the dam has not gone anywhere. Another thing left is the distribution network which to my knowledge the state government is working on as part of its counterpart funding." According to him, "the state commissioner for water resources came here and we went round together. I know as a matter of fact that they have taken a survey of the line network and I also know that in this year’s budget this particular project will be given priority in order to solve the acute water problem here in Mangu. When asked whether he knows why the work had to stop, he said: "I know of a fact that it is a counterpart funding between the state and the federal government. I know there is a company that started the excavation but only to find out that they have stopped work; I don’t know why and how they left."
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