Pauline Kairu
9 July 2009
Jinja — Queries have arisen over the continuous blasting of rocks on the river bed by the Bujagali Hydro power project contractor. Salini Construction Company came under fire from the National Environmental Management Authority [Nema) and Members of Parliament on the Natural Resources Committee, over its continued blasting of the rock without providing geological reports to Nema for evaluation.
The team was on a tour of the Jinja-based project on Tuesday.
The issues emerged after the Committee Chairperson, Ms Winfred Masiko, demanded to know whether they are carrying out studies after blasting. However, Nema's Executive Director, Dr Henry Aryamanya Mugisha, said whereas the blasting was approved by his body, the contractor has not fulfilled the condition of providing periodic reports on its progress. "These contractors will do anything to save money," said Mr Aryamanya, adding that Salini may want to blast rocks under the river to minimise costs if they are to get the stones elsewhere."
The blasting of the rock in question started early this year, about a kilometre up the stream from the dam-site. Salini crashes the extracted stones into concrete to use them in the construction.
The Nema boss said he recently rejected a fresh request by the contractor to blast another rock in the river, about two kilometres downstream the project, saying that was a the protected zone of the river.
Bujagali Electricity Limited (BEL), which is implementing the 250MW facility, eight kilometres downstream of Owen Falls hydro electricity dam on River Nile on behalf of the government, said "necessary studies and reports were done".
BEL maintains that it has been monitoring the contractors activities and are satisfied that Salini is carrying out the processes in complicity to the allowed parameters. The firm says it has documented the processes and that it would send necessary reports to Nema soon.
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