Major works for the US$6m Liliendaal pump station are being done offsite.
This was the explanation on Tuesday from the Ministry of Agriculture in relation to a news item in Monday’s edition of Stabroek News entitled `Work stalled on Liliendaal pump station’. The news item had reported that there hadn’t been work for days on the site and there had been no explanation. The pump station project is supposed to be completed in April this year.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry said: “… works on the new pump station have reached a stage where three critical activities are occurring off-site: (1) the overseas construction and subsequent delivery of the pump units, (2) the fabrication of the discharge pipes which will transmit the drainage load from the pump station to the outfall and (3) the structural elements for the Pump house are being fabricated.
The Supervisory Consultants hired to manage the implementation of the project remain attentive to the progress of the works and have adequate monitoring systems in place to properly manage both the schedule and cost components”.
The ministry also rapped the newspaper for “inept reporting”. It said that the pump station was reported on in the newspaper for the first time on March 14, 2023, and never again until February 6, 2024. That contention by the ministry was inaccurate as the newspaper had also reported on the pump station on July 22, 2023 and December 31, 2023.
The ministry said that from March 14, 2023, the works on the pump station progressed ahead of schedule, with several key elements such as the deep foundation, toe and tanking piles, and all major concrete works being completed.
Stabroek News had visited the site on several occasions in the last two weeks and there was no sign of any work.
The project which is being undertaken by General Engineering Supplies forms part of the Guyana Flood Risk Management Projects which was funded by the World Bank through the Agriculture Sector Development Unit’s Sustainable Agricultural Development Project.
