Patricia Maganu
28 August 2009
Francistown — Most government projects are behind schedule due to either lack of skilled labour or to natural disasters, it came to light during a media tour of seven such projects organised by the Office of the President (OP) last week.
One of the projects visited was the P113 billion Dikgatlhong Dam that has fallen behind by eight months. The Principal Resident Engineer of the Bobirwa project, Boikanyo Mpho of Bergstan Gauff Consulting Engineers, attributed the setback to unseasonable rains last June.
"There was a freak flood that inundated the riverbed on June 9, affecting construction," he said. According to the contractor, SinoHydro Corporation, the extension of time will cost the company P130 million.
Another problem affecting the Dikgatlhong Dam is shortage of skilled labour and subterranean rock formation, according to Assistant Project Manager Jing Jinke. "As you can see, machines are sitting idle because of lack of manpower to operate them," Jinke said.
"In addition, the geological condition of the rock was not so good. We had to dig deeper to get to good geological rock, which meant more time and money."
There are fears that the P386 million renovation of the Francistown-Ramokgwebana section of the A1 Highway could also fall behind schedule. Work started in September last year and was originally scheduled for completion in September next year.However, the Assistant Project Manager, He Wei of Sinohydro Corporation, said they have encountered problems with the acquisition of visas and work permits for certain people they need on site, especially plant operators. "It has been four months and we still cannot get visas or work permits for the people," He said.
He was hoping that progress would pick up when access roads, which have been awarded to a local contractor, are completed. "Speed will pick up and we have hopes that we will finish on schedule," He said.
The rather out-of-season rains last June have also affected progress of work on the construction of a senior secondary school in Nata. The Resident Engineer, Simon Tshekedi of Africon, said insufficient labour, especially bricklayers, was another problem.
"We are struggling to reach (even) 50 percent of the required number of employees," Tshekedi said, adding that bricklayers were in short supply because of many construction projects in the area, among them the Nata-Kazungula Road.
Francistown Stadium was another project affected by shortage of skilled labour.
However, the contractor has been granted a special dispensation to import such workers from China and 23 days' extension.
The project, which is presently 50 percent completed, was lagging behind by 191 days.
Tsheko said he hopes the special dispensation and extension of time will enable them to complete the project on schedule in January next year.
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