Ikuru, oceanic town, seals N500m development scheme with contractors

The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which many activists have kicked against over the months has yielded huge benefits in a far-flung but oceanic town in Rivers State.

This is as the coastal Ikuru Town in Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State will in a matter of few weeks have access to potable water.

This follows a contract signing by the Ikuru Town Host Community Development Trust HCDT and two contractors for the delivery of that essential facility. The HCDT is a creation of the PIA to hand project decision and execution to host communities, a strategy that may have been copied by the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) system created by SPDC and some other oil companies many years ago as the MoU system was rejected.

Contract for the N500-million water project was signed at the weekend by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Host community Development Trust (HCDT) and two contractors; Gemark Construction Limited and Peeman Integrated Services.

The first phase of the project that would gulp about N150 million has Gemark Construction Limited handling two major water drilling jobs at the cost of N105 million while Peeman Integrated Services will be in charge of construction of the Facility House at the cost of about N47 million with expected completion date as December 2024.

The water projects are the implementation of the three per cent operating expenses (OPEX) by the Joint Ventures (JV) as recommended by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

Joint Ventures, Green Energy and Lekoil are currently implementing the projects through the host community development trust (HCDT) with an independent board of trustees.

Speaking on the importance of the project, Lysias D. Gilbert, a professor and BoT chairman of Ikuru Town HCDT, said: “Our terrain is a peculiar one. We are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean with salt water. We also have swamp water on the island and that makes getting potable drinking water a major challenge to us. That is why we want to tackle this challenge as much as possible this time, believing that we will have a major breakthrough”.

He added that the management committee would monitor the projects to ensure that the jobs were delivered based on specification. “We have also hired a consultant who specializes in that area. He works in SPDC and will help in monitoring. We are also to work with the various contractors based on milestones of the job done”.

According to Gilbert, “The total cost of the project is above N500 million. That is why we decided to handle the contracts in phases. This is phase one where Geemark will drill water at over N30 million, Peeman will build the facility house at about N40 million.

“We believe that during the second phase, more money would have come from the three per cent that would be given to us to build water tanks.

“When good water is produced by Geemark and it is odourless, tasteless, and colorless, we will be able to erect some pipes to connect the entire community with water. We already have some Gee Pee tanks in the community. That is the reason we hope to get the water project done and delivered by this December.

“By the end of next year, if we are able to complete this phase of the project, we will set up a water facility project where we will be bottling water for commercial purposes. We will export them to earn more revenue for the community. That will be a major source of revenue to sustain this project and the ones to come. We will not want to experience any abandoned project in our tenure”, he explained.

Speaking on behalf of Green Energy and Lekoil JV, Godwin Okeke stressed the importance of the project both to the community and the JV.

He also alluded to the difficulty of getting potable water to the community despite being close to the ocean.

He pointed out that the JV has been able to maintain cordial relationship with the communities, noting that it would enhance the timely delivery of the project.

Okeke said; “In the past, they have had several water projects even by some known IOCs which were not successful.

So, when the joint ventures (Green Energy and Lekoil) started the project, the community had always sought for ways to get portable water and we are lucky that at the time we were doing the project, we drilled water well and we were able to succeed.

“It is the same contractor that produced that water in our site that the Trust Fund is using for their project. That is why this project is very important because for over 30 years the community was not able to source potable water”.

Okeke stressed: “The JV has an excellent relationship with the communities. As a matter of fact, we were the first company that started community development project even before the first oil well was drilled. So, we had incorporated memorandum of understanding (MoU) for which we annually contribute money for the community sustainable development.

So, we have had this relationship and we also have the channel that has been created now by the PIA through the HCDT to ensure that the money they get from the JV was used in an efficient way”.

Reacting to the contract signing, an indigene of the community, Lawson George, expressed delight the possibility of the Ikuru community to be spared years of intermittent outbreak of water-borne diseases despite the fact that it is an island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

“It is a thing of joy to us. Several efforts to drill potable water in the community have failed. We believe that this time around, our problem will be over. We are very excited”, George declared.