Two Pumps Already Down at Yabra Pumping Station
The Yarborough Pumping Station was inaugurated by the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing and the Belize City Council on October twelfth. The facility was designed and constructed to alleviate the flooding in downtown Belize City. But tonight, two of the four screw pumps are already down and MIDH says a specialist will be brought in to assess the problem. The pumping station, part of I.D.B.’s Climate Vulnerability Reduction Program, comes with a price tag of eleven million dollars. News Five spoke with Rolando Chan of the Project Management Unit at the MIDH.
Rolando Chan
Rolando Chan, Project Management Unit, MIDH
“What we have is the first two pumps. Out of the four, we have two that are running perfect and have been assessed by the specialist that came from Landustrie. Landustrie is the supplier, that’s a company from Europe, if I’m not mistaken it’s from Rotterdam, somewhere. So the other two screw pumps that we have, the gearbox is giving a little bit of trouble, but the assessment is being done as we speak. So the initial findings is that the gearbox will have to be assessed by another specialist from Germany. Germany is the supplier of the gearbox’s specific type, so another specialist will have to come into the country and assess the other two gearboxes which are number one and three.”
Isani Cayetano
“Now this particular pump station was inaugurated less than a month or so ago. Was this type of an issue foresee, in terms of the actual machinery?”
Rolando Chan
“Well, no. What happened is that when we did the initial running of the four screw pumps, we were supposed to have the inauguration somewhere in September, but we had to postpone. During that time all four screw pumps were running fine, perfect condition, but then the assessment because what we have is the contractor, Medina’s Construction is the contractor and then we have the subcontractor to build with this, I would say, electrical and installation elements is the FT Williams team. So what we have is that these guys did the installation but the assessment has to be done by the experts from Landustrie.”
