By: Felix Ikpotor
Management of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has reassured the people of Ogoniland that the Project is committed to building quality and long lasting projects in the area.
HYPREP came out with this following the collapse of the Gwara water project in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Recall that the Gwara water project commissioned last Saturday alongside the Bane water project, collapsed Tuesday night leading to controversy within the community and questions about the quality of the project.
However, HYPREP while reacting to the incident said it has put in place an investigation committee to immediately unravel the possible cause of the incident.
Addressing journalist at its office in Port Harcourt, officials of HYPREP comprising the Legal Adviser, Gowon Ichibor, Head of Communications, Enuolara Mba-Nwigoh and the Resident Engineer, Tabe James regretted the incident and assured that the collapsed water facility would be fixed soon to enable the communities that are supposed to benefit from the project enjoy potable water supply.
The HYPREP officials maintained that the Project has qualified quality assurance and monitoring team that follows-up all its projects and certifies them for use.
The HYPREP officials said a committee instituted by the Project Coordinator, Professor Nenibarini Zabbey has already visited the site and is investigating the cause of incident.
”HYPREP remains committed to continue to deliver quality projects that meet best standards. It has introduced both internal and external measures to ensure quality assurance and control. This includes the engagement of a Project Consultant, EcoProject, supervision from the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit and Water Supervisors among others.”
”But for this isolated case, 16 Water Stations have been commissioned, supplying water to over 40 communities. Some of them have been running for over 2 years, ” Nwigoh said.
He added that the incident was a temporary setback assuring of speedy action by HYPREP. He noted that the the project had recorded five million hours of no loss which he said points to their high safety standards stressing that, “thesame for all our projects- we do not compromise quality, we do not compromise standards”.
The officials disclosed further that aside the isolated case, all other of its projects are progressing smoothly without any incident or report of failure.
”We are assuring the public and the Ogoni nation that we are on top of the situation and soonest we’ll get that water project back on track,” Ichibor added.
