Project Execution, Control, & Closure Proposal

Korbesa community has been facing consistent unrest and anarchy over the past two decades, which has led to the destruction of public facilities, including water. As such, large populations have been facing water scarcity, which has heightened conflict and competition resulting in the displacement of many people (King-Okumu et al., 2016). The community around the area depend on pastoralism for their livelihood, and their main economic activity is livestock keeping. The social, economic status of Korbesa in Eastern Kenya has been negatively affected due to the water challenges. Therefore, the XYZ nonprofit organization decided to focus on this community to solve the water crisis affecting this community. The overall objective of the project is to supply water to the community for consumption by livestock and human beings. This will help curb the crisis of water shortage, promote the economic status, and reduce conflicts and spread of diseases.

The scope of the project is to drill ten boreholes of approximately 290 meters’ depth below the ground level and 8 meters’ diameter. The project is likely to cost about 100 million Kenyan shillings. Decomposition will be used as the work breakdown technique, which will help in breaking down the complex project into manageable and simple tasks. Some of the main activities include environmental planning, logistics, cost control, rig movement plans, moving rig and drilling, security analysis, and testing program. The main stakeholders of the project will be the XYZ company and the Korbesa community, who are both financiers and beneficiaries, respectively. Additionally, some of the main legislation that has to be adhered to include The Public Health Act, The Water Act, and those developed by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The project also has some risk factors that might affect the project, which includes the Stake holder’s requirements, accidents, funding and operation, and maintenance. However, there are objectives of monitoring the risks, and response plans will take place. Furthermore, the project has some positive impact, which includes security enhancement, reduction of diseases, and corporation enhancement. The negative impacts include noise pollution, accidents, soil disturbance, and hostility from the community. The main derivable should be given some special attention, and performance indicators should be used to assess the project. Therefore, this project will bring a positive impact to the community of Korbesa and raise their living standards.

Project’s Greatest Challenges

One of the major challenges during the project is noise pollution. The heavy machinery used and clearing of bushes, especially during the drilling and construction of the boreholes are likely to produce a lot of noise, hence causing noise pollution around the area. This also because the heavy machinery will knock down trees, then move them to a safer place and create a high pitched engine that will cause distraction. The noise is also likely to be accompanied by large volumes of dust that is likely to cause ear, skin and eye allergies, poor visibility, and respiratory problems. Noise production can potentially aggregate health conditions of individuals with earing problems.

Another major challenge that might arise during the projects is compaction and soil disturbance resulting from borehole drilling. The use of heavy machines during site clearing, compacting the soils, can lead to leaching of nutrients and surface runoff (Kruszewski, & Wittig, 2018). Soil disturbance can lead to wind erosion and generate emission of dust and fumes. Similarly, accidental spills and hazardous materials such as fuel and oils for the machinery can pollute soils and water canals if they are not stored hand handled with great care. Heavy chemicals might also find their way into the food chain during the bursting of main pipes and heavy downpour which are likely to be washed into the soil. This can negatively impact the beneficial soil microorganisms like the nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

The constructors are also likely to face hostility from the community around the area due to anticipated conflicts from the farmers because of pollution. Famers adjacent to the area of construction can be negatively affected due to constant noise, soil, and water pollution from the machinery. Therefore, conflicts are likely to arise since most of them will feel that their crops and land are destroyed. The community around the region are known for constant conflicts and attacks from their neighboring communities, which might also affect the overall construction because the workers will fear for their lives.

Additionally, the area of the project is generally flat, and occurrence of floods is largely anticipated. This is because most rivers around the area lack water pumps and there are also some weak points along the river backs resulting in the release of the excess energy of water. The situation is also compounded by the existence of laggas, bringing a large volume of water into the rivers. Over the past years, farmers and town around Isiolo and Korbesa have experienced untold damages due to floods and riverbank erosion (Kruszewski, & Wittig, 2018). Therefore, his might be a great challenge during the construction of the boreholes and eve after.

Despite the anticipated challenges, several measures can be observed to minimize or prevent the challenges during drilling of the boreholes. Noise pollution can be reduced if a proper technology is designed that will enhance the slow flow of traffic around the sites of construction (Chakava, & Franceys, 2016). Frequent movement of construction vehicles can also be minimized to avoid causing disturbances to cause by the noise. This can be done by construction of diversions where necessary and also using trucks that move at a limited speed and with care.

Soil pollution can be prevented by designing and constructing sewerages for storing oil spills and wastes from construction. Construction vehicles, plant, and equipment in use can also be regularly maintained to avoid oil spills and allergies caused by exhausted fumes. Planting of trees around the area of construction is also another recommendation for prevention of soil, riverbank, wind erosion, and majorly floods (Chakava, & Franceys, 2016). Stormwater can also be harvested after the construction of proper drainage and malfunctioning water sources be repaired to prevent flooding. If all the measures are observed, then conflicts between the community and constructors can be avoided. However, there is a need for workers to be properly manned to protect them from harm in case of any conflict between the communities around the area.

Earned Value Management

Earned Value Management (EVM) will help in measuring the performance of the project against its baseline. The EVM calculations will be studied and memorized by all those in charge of monitoring the performance of the project from both the cost and schedule perspectives. It is vital for them to use binary thinking, which includes the ahead if schedule vs. behind schedule and also over budget vs. under budget (Webb, 2017). The Microsoft project is a great software package that will be used to perform the EV calculations automatically. The calculations are basic and can be done manually.

The key metrics to be used during this project include the Planned Value (PV), Actual Cost (AC), and the Earned Value (EV). The PV is the planned amount of money during the project period, the AC measures the costs to date, while EV is the entire project’s budget which is multiplied by the percentage of the project completion. A series of calculations are involved, including the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) which measures PV against EV. < 1.0 value shows that less work has been done than it was anticipated while > 1.0 show that more work has been accomplished. There is also the Cost Performance Index, which measures EV against AC. Similarly, <1.0 will show that the costs were more than they were planned while >1.0 will show that the costs were less than anticipated.

Project Closure

            After the borehole has been delivered to the community of Korbesa, communication completed to the stakeholders and resources have been released to other projects, then teams can start closing the project. During this step, the team will evaluate, document, and identify the mistakes and successes that occurred during the project to build a successful team and stronger processes for the nest project. The performance of the constructors will also be analyzed through evaluation of whether they delivered quality work, met their goals, and work with the timeliness. Project performance will also be analyzed to determined boreholes were constructed on the estimated time, and the problems that arose earlier have been solved through the use of a prepared checklist. Finally, the used and unused budget will be accounted for through the allocation of the remaining resources for future projects. If the project has been completed successfully, then all the parties involved will call for a celebration and launch the borehole in Korbesa.

References

Chakava, Y., & Franceys, R. (2016). What hope for the transition? Evaluating pro-poor water supply interventions in urban low-income settlements in Kenya. Waterlines, 35(4), 365-387.

King-Okumu, C., Wasonga, O. V., Jarso, I., & Salah, Y. M. S. (2016). Direct use values of climate-dependent ecosystem services in Isiolo County, Kenya. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED): London, UK.

Kruszewski, M., & Wittig, V. (2018). Review of failure modes in supercritical geothermal drilling projects. Geothermal Energy, 6(1), 28.

Webb, A. (2017). Using earned value: a project manager’s guide. Routledge.