The Minister of Water Resources, Philip K. Lansana accompanied by the Managing Director of Guma Valley Water Company, Maada Kpenge, has on Friday 5th November, 2021 visited the work sites of the Freetown Water Supply Rehabilitation Project at Mile 13 and Spur Road.
The purpose of the visit by the Minister was to get first-hand information about progress on the various works packages the project is currently working on.
At the Project Site office at Mile 13, the Minister was briefed by the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) Technical Advisor, Keith Hammond.
Addressing the Minister, Mr. Hammond said the main objective of the project is to improve the living situation for the citizens of Freetown through the rehabilitation of the water supply infrastructure for improved service delivery and access to safe water supply.
Mr. Hammond informed Minister Lansana that the project design phase took a bit longer than was anticipated and coupled with the Covid 19 situation; this has led to delaying of project works and cost overrun.
The Technical Advisor said even though an additional ten million pounds was added to the
original project cost of thirty-eight million pounds, the project is still faced with funding gaps.
Mr. Hammond appealed to the Government of Sierra Leone through the Minister to consider giving some tax waivers to the project, or they will be left with no alternative but to descoped some of the ongoing works packages.
The Project Manager (BAM) Ing. Eric Jan Bergsma informed the Minister that the project is working rehabilitation of the Guma Treatment Plant, including rehabilitation to the Dam scour valves, the intake and gravity pipe and replacement of 3km of the main transmission pipeline from Mile 13 to Hamilton Bridge.
According to Ing. Bergsma, the engineering works which is being undertaken by a consortium including BAM, Motts Macdonald and IMC Worldwide will also target reducing the number of leakages on the distribution network from 40% to 25% through a combination of improved leak detection and repair, and network pressure management by installing flow meters, pressure reducing valves and pressure loggers at 12 locations across Freetown.
Ing. Bergsma informed the Minister that pumps and generators at the Spur Road Reservoir will also be rehabilitated. He said the project has repaired a leaking Gate valve at the Dam, rehabilitated two cross connections on the Transmission network at Lakka that have considerably reduced water losses and put more water into the network so more people can access it.
He said the project works are expected to be completed in June 2022, whilst the project will wrap up in November 2022.
In his response, Minister Lansana thanked the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) for their support to the project and the engineering consortium for the good work done so far. He assured the FCDO team that he will pass on their appeal to the relevant authorities for prompt action.
In a related development, Minister Lansana also took time to inspect the Upper Philip Street (Wellington) Gravity Water Supply Project which has been completed and will be commissioned and handed over to Guma Valley Water Company this week.
Guma Communication Unit
7/11/21
