AfricaPress-Tanzania: DEPUTY Water Minister, Jumaa Aweso has directed all water project contractors, who suspended projects due to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19), to resume them immediately.
The deputy minister said in a press release yesterday by the Ministry’s Communications Unit that the government would take legal action against any water project contractor who would not comply with the directive.
“I direct all water project contractors who had suspended their projects because of Covid-19 to return to project sites and continue with work and complete them as planned,” reads part of the statement, quoting Mr Aweso.
The deputy minister is sued the directive after learning that the contractors, who were implementing the water projects in six villages in Singida Region, dilly dallied due to the Covid-19 disease.
The contractors are M/S Nangai Engineering Limited and Nipo Africa Engineering Limited.
Mr Aweso noted that the villagers of Songambele, Mlowa, Majengo, Tambu- kareli, Zinginali and Itigi should access water supply as soon as possible.
The contractors implementing the water projects which are expected to serve 31,000 villagers in six villages and thus address a long time challenge of water shortage.
The implementation of projects had stopped due to the pandemic.
According to the deputy minister, the government has already issued 1.3bn/- to contractors to complete wa- ter projects in six villages of Itigi.
“I want to assure resi- dents in the six villages that they will soon get water for domestic consumption, including sanitation to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The government is doing every- thing to ensure these proj- ects are completed on time,” he said.
Mr Aweso, who is touring Singida Region to inspect the implementation of water projects, directed Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (Ruwasa) to en- sure contractors completed water projects immediately.
“Ruwasa should ensure that contractors implement water projects issue a work report mentioning challenges that face them,” he observed.
