Posted on July 23, 2018
By Sascha Wilson, Guardian
Penal residents are calling for the urgent removal of a broken amphibious excavator left in the river near the Tulsa picnic site for over a month now.
They said the excavator is partly blocking of the watercourse called the Blackwater Channel and can contribute to flooding in the already flood-prone area.
The excavator belongs to Kallco contractors which had been awarded a contract by the Ministry of Works Drainage Division to dredge and clear the river.
An official from Kallco, who asked not to be named, said they were able to complete the contract which entailed dredging the river before the machine broke down. He said when they were removing the excavator, it was damaged, and they were unable to move it.
“The project was done between May and June during the dry season when it did not have much water in the river. That machine needs water to work and because there was insufficient water the constant moving up and down caused the track to burst.”
He said they could not source the part locally so they ordered it from abroad.
He said he has been trying to remove the machine and hope to extricate it in the next couple of days. He denied that the government was renting the equipment from them.
An official from the drainage division confirmed that Kallco completed the contract. The official said they have since written to Kallco requesting that the equipment be removed from the river. Chairman of the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation Allen Sammy said he was not aware that the equipment was blocking the river.
Source: Guardian
