Water – Nature’s gift but were people conned?

Some people are still without water because they cannot afford to buy the fittings to go with the water tanks subsidised by government.

Good on the new Minister for Infrastructure William Heather Jnr for saying he’s going to fix the water problems. This comes on top of government’s commitment to introduce a water tank subsidy which, according to the Minister will address the chronic water shortages and storage especially for areas of Arorangi.
Government is to be commended for their initiative in establishing the subsidy for water tanks but someone forgot to ensure that our people understood fully that the subsidy only applied to the water tank. Additional fittings such as pipes, spouting, pump, filter and accessories are the responsibility of the person purchasing the tanks and guess what, many of our people have found that the cost far exceeds the value of actually having a water tank therefore defeating the purpose and intent of having a water tank in the first place.
What we are now seeing is a number of homes who have applied for the water tank subsidy but cannot afford the fixture costs leaving them with tanks with no water, no means of acquiring water and basically, a tank which serves no real purpose other than a “$600 white elephant” and out of pocket expense.
The Herald believes it is important to understand what is the real problem and to identify the barriers that contribute to this ongoing problem. To do this, we need to look at our Water Works Division at MOIP. Inside sources advise that money allocated under loans procurements for infrastructure including water is sitting in a bank account and has not been accessed yet. The problem is that MOIP will not acknowledge that its own officials do not have the skills nor do they know how to write project proposals in order to access these funds that ultimately will benefit our people. Instead, management at MOIP are “playing God” and because of sheer incompetence and lack of skills, have held people including government to ransom because of poor technical advice.
The Herald was informed last year that a proposal which would have addressed the water problem for a fraction of the cost estimated by government in Arorangi was presented to government by local consultants however, this was turned down because of what was considered “high consultancy fees.” To add insult to injury, an approach was made to this same group later to consider if their proposal could be given to government and used as a model for implementation.
In fact, the consultants had spent up to 3 months doing the preparation, research, consultations, report proposal and dialogue and working with government officials under the terms of a “cabinet committee” and were advised money was not an issue. Unfortunately when asked to submit their fee (quoted as less than $50,000 involving 3 people for 3 months work) barriers were immediately put in place suggesting the work had to be put to tender.
Now, after so many stuff ups, poor service delivery and promises to the people of this country that the water problem has been fixed because of a new ring road pipe system, people still have low pressure, water is turned off, there are leaks in the new pipes system in Arorangi and more interesting, some homes and retail outlets in Arorangi still have no water. The Black Rock store in Nikao has had no water since early October since it was turned off and they are drawing water from a block of flats next door to the shop.
So, what has happened to the water one might ask? The new pipes are in place, tanks have been provided to those who have applied for the subsidy and still, where is the water? There have been periods of rain intermittently during the past few weeks which would have been enough to top up our water storage capacity but sadly, MOIP still sees fit to turn off the water whenever it suits without any explainable consideration to the consumer.
The new Minister was seen on TV doing his “field visit” and advising our people he was going to do something about it. Ironically, his field visit was exactly what he had been shown by the local consultants last year and he was “already informed and aware” as to the extent of the problems.
The question remains, how are we going to fix the water problem? That is the billion dollar question after 44 years. Will the funds designated for infrastructure development continue to remain in a bank account growing interest because of the inability of a government ministry to facilitate project proposals?

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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