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{
    "id": 1025298,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1025298/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 345,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mogotio, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Daniel Tuitoek",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13434,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kamuren Tuitoek",
        "slug": "daniel-kamuren-tuitoek"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. This is a very important Report. From the outset, I support the Report. The mandate of the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation includes creating dams for water storage, water supply, irrigation, sanitation and also control of floods. Listening to my friend Hon. Wamalwa, he over-relied on the National Irrigation Board (NIB) constructing major dams. Major dams fall under the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation. The Report is very good. I have just perused it. Recently, we had problems with big dams because of the financing model. I do not think the design has a problem but we have not enforced the procedures for financing and constructing a dam. The role of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is to ensure that there is a proper design before approving the construction of a dam. If you look at most of the big dams that we have, you will find that the financing model has essentially been EPCF, which refers to Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Financing by a particular financing institution. Therefore, most of the time you find that there is a lot of collusion in terms of the feasibility study and design of a particular dam. This Report has tried to address that. It proposes that we bring all those processes under one roof so that we look at the financing model, design and even the implementation aspect. The Committee also recommended that the Water Service Boards, which are about eight, should not be the ones constructing those dams. They should only be involved in the last part. I agree with the Report of the Committee. The major issue is that on the financing model for those dams, the Government should set aside adequate money before constructing the dams. One of the reasons why we compare ourselves with Morocco and others is because most of our projects do not have complete funding. We start a project and say that we shall fund it as we move ahead. That model is not very good and brings in a lot of variation. If you look at Badasa and Umaa dams, you will find that those two big dams have major problems because of the financing model. They do not have adequate funding, and the contractor will not complete work on time. Even Thiba Dam which is under the National Irrigation Board in Mwea has problems of construction. The financing model is not very good. This is partially because the Exchequer comes late and even the aspect of taxation comes in. All these issues need to be looked at carefully before we approve the construction of a dam. We should set aside adequate funds for a particular project so that we reduce variation. If you look at most of those dams, you will find that it is the variation which is messy."
}