The Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has launched an investigation into the collapse of an overhead water tank in Gwara community in Khana local government area of Rivers State.
The incident occurred after the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, last Saturday inaugurated two water projects in Bane and Gwara communities of Khana LGA.
But the Gwara water station meant to provide safe drinking water for about 14 communities caved in on Tuesday.
The Vice-Chairman of the committee and HYPREP Legal Adviser, Gowon Ichibor, said a high level investigative committee had been set up to deteemine the immediate and remote causes of the incident
Ichibor said the committee visited the site on Wednesday morning to assess the situation and conveyed its preliminary findings to the HYPREP Project Coordinator, Prof. Nenibari Zabbey.
Ichibor said “As part of the team that visited the site this morning, what we discovered was broken walls with wreckage all over the ground, water pulling down the front walls. We had to inform the PC (Project Coordinator) of our discovery.”
He said that a team from the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and the Committee jointly visited the incident.
He said: “When the engineering team visit later in the day with investigation from our team, I am sure we must at then have discovered remote cause of the damages.
“Whoever needs to be punished will be punished. We pray that at the end of it all it won’t be human error. What we are more interested in is to see that we get water back to the Gwara people.”
On his part, the Chief Resident Engineer of HYPREP, Tabe James said: “There is a collapse of the water tank and investigation is still ongoing.
“There is debris all over the place but if you go there you will see that the foundation is still intact. So it is only when we carry out proper investigation, testing of materials and certification that we will know the real measure. For now the investigation is still ongoing.”
