The Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges, announced on Friday, in the municipality of Matala, Huila province, the launching of a public tender for the construction of a new water supply system for Lubango.
This project aims at building a dam in the course of Unene river, which will allow storing enough precious liquid and compensate the irregularity observed in the underground systems and rains.
This investment, according to the minister, will allow for more connections, especially to the periphery and to respond to the demographic explosion, an action that has funding from the World Bank (WB), under the Project for Development in the Water Sector, PDISA II, whose budget has not been advanced.
João Baptista Borges said that at the moment Lubango is operating with only 16 percent of its distribution capacity, resulting from a long period of drought that caused a shortage of the product in the underground wells.
The project, the amount of funding for which has already been approved, is expected to begin as soon as the tender for the award of the contract is held. The same financial package also includes two other systems for the municipalities of Chibia and Humpata.
The holder of the portfolio made it known that in Chibia the problem of lack of water may be minimized due to the construction of the Nonpopo dam, supported by the Caculavale river, whose project will extend to the Chiange commune, in the Gambos municipality, where drought is still a reality.
“This assumes that in the coming months there will be water availability not only in Lubango, but also in other municipalities, and the level of quantity will increase, because we are aware of the importance of strengthening the water supply in these parts,” João Baptista Borges said.
He recalled that Matala has been running, since 2018, but with difficulties, a project for the construction of a water supply system, due to the irregularity that is verified in the financial execution, but everything indicates that as of January next year, 65 percent of the local population will be able to consume this product in quantity and quality, having already been made one thousand and 500 new connections.
João Baptista Borges considered that, in general terms, by May 2023, the Matala water supply system project will be concluded, since it is the second largest population center after Lubango, with more than 335,118 inhabitants.
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