AROUND 20 jobs could go if the sewer network extension programme is scrapped as planned.
Geomarine is writing to all States members urging them to press ahead with the £4m. a year project aiming to connect 95% of properties to the main drain by 2020.
It has not been given top priority by Treasury and Resources, which, if accepted in May, would mean the scheme not being funded out of States capital until 2013 at the earliest.
The news came on the same day as Commerce and Employment released a survey of the construction industry that showed difficult economic conditions were starting to have an impact.
Geomarine director Chris Wrench said it was concerned about its local employees, who were specially trained for the job.
‘If the island is not going to be spending money over the next four years in new drain-laying projects, that would result in us probably having to make a portion of our labour force redundant,’ said Mr Wrench.
Across Guernsey and Alderney it employs 70 people, 20 of them in its drains division.
The company had held the contract for the past eight years and tendered for it when it came up last year.
It has been told it was successful again.
‘The concern for us is that although during the course of this year some money has been allocated for this project, it would mean from 2010 onwards until the end of this prioritisation period no money would be spent on new sewers links,’ he said.
‘People working on them, because it’s specialised, will find it difficult to train in other fields. The problem for them also is they aren’t going to work for another company, which might happen is we lost the tender.’
But with the programme halted, the jobs would no longer be here. The network extension programme was also important for the island, Mr Wrench said.
‘If this money isn’t spent, again the island would not have the sewer connections like it should have and it’s not going to then be able to join up the network to go to one point for future sewage treatment works.’
Mr Wrench said the island had underinvested in its infrastructure in the past. That had caused problems and he warned against doing so again.
As a civil engineering firm, Geomarine welcomed the extent of the other projects in Treasury’s £300m. spending plan, he said.
But a lot of the bigger projects would go to off-island companies, added Mr Wrench.
Public Services submitted the sewer network extension project to the capital prioritisation debate.
In 2008, funding for it was reduced from £3m. a year to £1m. but this would need to be increased to £4m. a year for five years to complete the programme.
‘This fundamental public health facility is taken for granted in all other developed countries and should not be deliberately neglected once again by the States,’ the department said in its submission to Treasury.