Water Tank Collapses 3 Days After Commissioning in Rivers
An overhead water tank erected to provide potable water to 14 communities in Ogoni area of Rivers State has collapsed three days after commissioning.
The project was executed under the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, HYPREP, and was commissioned by the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal at a very colorful ceremony a week ago.
Chief Waadah urged communities across Ogoniland not to keep quiet when substandard projects are executed in their areas. H
He said they must expose corrupt officials and contractors whenever such failures occur.
“The Ogoni clean-up has turned into a cash cow for corrupt officials. Ogoniland does not look like a place where one billion dollars has been spent. Our people are still drinking polluted water, hospitals are non-existent, and our roads remain death traps,” Waadah lamented.
The collapsed project was allegedly awarded by the former project coordinator of HYPREP, Dr. Ferdinand Giadom.
On his part, President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke said the incident was unfortunate and a clear indication that the job was “poorly done by a certain substandard contractor without any recourse to durability. It is a shame that this kind of thing will happen to Ogoni people after years of our nonviolent struggle for justice.”
Meanwhile, the management of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project said it has launched an investigation into the collapse of the newly commissioned overhead water tank.
HYPREP said a high level committee has been set up to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the incident.
Vice-Chairman of the committee and HYPREP legal adviser, Gowon Ichibor, made this known when he addressed the public on what went wrong with the project last week.
Ichibor said the committee had visited the site on Wednesday last week to assess the situation and communicate its preliminary findings to the HYPREP Project Coordinator, Prof. Nenibari Zabbey.
