Damanko, Aug 26, GNA - China Geo-Engineering Corporation that is working on a component of the Damanko-Kpassa Water Supply Scheme has been cited for failure to comply with designs and engineering specifications and this is delaying the project.

The GHc 4.255 million project, which started in February 2008 and was supposed to be completed in December 2008, is 18 months behind schedule.

Mr Francis Yaw Gyarko, Board Chairman of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), said this at the project site when Board Members toured the facilities at Damanko.

The project is being funded by the British Department for International Development (DFID), Government of Ghana with technical support from Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

He said the Chinese firm was executing two components - intake and treatment segments costing GHc 1.493 million - and is bogged down by many irregularities and shoddy work.

Mr Gyarko said he was equally dissatisfied with the consultants on the project, Holix Consult Limited, for not invoking the necessary sanctions when it was clear they flouted laid down principles.

He directed the Chinese firm to scale-up works and complete the project in two months or face sanctions.

Mr Edem Asimah, a Board Member and the Member of Parliament for South Dayi, said the delay was an affront to the government's agenda of providing potable water to the population and especially a race against the total eradication of water-borne diseases in the catchments area.

He commended the local contractors for delivering quality work and on schedule, wondered why the Chinese firm should not be charged for liquidated damages.

Mr Asimah said the government frowned on the delay and urged the Chinese firm to salvage its image since the people could not continue to drink polluted water.

Mr Clement Bugase, the Chief Executive of CWSA, said the Damanko-Kpassa project was the biggest piped water scheme being undertaken by the Volta Region CWSA and is supposed to serve 13 communities and a projected population of 56,161 by 2018.

He said the project was about 85-90 percent complete and this huge investment could not be left at the mercy of unnecessary delays.

Mr Peprah Manu, a representative of Holix Consult Limited, said it had been difficult working with the Chinese firm as they continued to flout directives with impunity.

Mr Henry Ampah Johnson, Technical Supervisor of VRCWSA, said 98 public standpipes and 19 institutional standpipes had been completed to distribute water from the 10 high level tanks.

Nana Sampson Mboribe III, Chief of Damanko, expressed displeasure about the project delay and said it was becoming a human rights issue.