By Engrácia Pedro
Africa-Press – Angola. The construction of a new general hospital, a football stadium and the long-awaited road that will connect the municipalities of Sanza-Pombo and Buengas constituted one of the most notable milestones in the province of Uíge in the last 12 months.
Budgeted at 49 million euros, the new Uíge General Hospital (HGU) began construction in April 2023, in an area of 62 thousand square meters, close to Quilomosso Centrality.
The duration of the work is projected to be 12 months for a building that simultaneously includes administrative and clinical areas with a capacity for 204 beds and the provision of various specialized services, including hemodialysis and production of medicinal gas.
The new hospital unit was designed, in 2022, as part of the Government’s efforts to relieve the infrastructure currently in service and improve patient care conditions, given the small size and degradation of the current HGU, built in 1959.
With 250 beds, three emergency benches, two intensive care services and areas of orthopedics, pediatrics, surgery, stomatology, X-ray, as well as two operating theaters, among other compartments, the current HGU has already undergone renovation works several times.
However, the limitations arising from its longevity greatly affect the care of the high number of patients who seek its services daily.
In turn, the new football stadium, also to be built in the same neighborhood, is a reference infrastructure in UEFA category IV, with capacity for more than 10,000 seated spectators, in two side stands and one main stand.
Currently, the city of Uíge, as the seat of the province, has two football stadiums – the municipal 4 de Janeiro and the Futebol Clube do Uíge (FCU) – but, of these two infrastructures, only the first hosts football competitions. Girabola.
The “4 de Janeiro” was built in colonial times to house more than 13 thousand people, but today it needs rehabilitation work in several areas.
Projected to be completed in three years, the construction work for the new stadium, whose first stone was laid on July 20, 2022, is budgeted at US$38,803,203.
The first stone was laid in a ceremony attended by several members of the Government, traditional authorities, representatives of youth associations and religious entities.
The playing field, with natural grass, will be 105 meters long and 68 meters wide, with two three-story side stands, coverage of the VIP tribune and boxes.
It will have four changing rooms for athletes and referees, medical emergency rooms, anti-doping control rooms, a press area, including two TV and radio studios, as well as bars.
An athletics track with 100 areas, including instruments for obstacle courses, a triple jump track, high jump, javelin, hammer and shot put, commercial areas and the conditions required by the accessibility law for people with reduced mobility are part of the structure of the new stadium.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Youth and Sports at the time, Ana Paula do Sacramento Neto, warned, during the laying of the first stone, that it will be necessary to train sports agents to guarantee “effective and competent” management of the new sports infrastructure.
On the occasion, the provincial governor of Uíge, José Carvalho da Rocha, admitted, in turn, that a new football stadium “was greatly needed” in a province that is “a hotbed of sports stars”.
Sanza-Pombo/Buengas Road
In another area, the municipality of Buengas was, for several years, considered one of the most difficult to access locations in the country.
In March 2023, the work was consigned to pave the 89-kilometer road, which works, which run from the municipality of Sanza-Pombo to the municipal headquarters of Buengas, will be completed in two years.
They are budgeted at more than 31 billion kwanzas.
So far, deforestation, earthworks, drainage of some ravines and construction of some bridges have already been carried out.
Still in the field of road construction, the road that connects the cities of Uíge and Negage, passing through the villages of Calumbo and Dambi, was paved.
The works on the Calumbo-Dambi section, already completed, are costing more than 29 million US dollars, and involve the involvement of more than 100 workers, including Angolans and Chinese.
Other achievements of the province
In 2023, the province of Uíge saw the inauguration of four high schools with 24 classrooms each, located in the provincial headquarters and in the municipalities of Songo, Quimbele and Maquela do Zombo, all financed by the Spanish Government.
Eleven large ravines were also blocked, totaling 13, which progressed along the route between Sanza-Pombo and Quimbele.
The work helped to significantly improve the circulation of vehicles between the provincial capital and the municipalities of Sanza-Pombo, Milunga and Quimbele.
The working visit of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, in June, to the city of Uíge, where he guided the 1st Meeting of the Local Governance Council (CGL), with the participation of the governors of the country’s 18 provinces, alongside holders of ministerial departments also entered the list of relevant facts.
In 2023, Uíge hosted the Pilot Census, in the municipalities of Songo and Buengas, which will serve as preparation for the Population Census to take place this year, in Angola.
Among the negative facts, Uíge recorded the death, at the age of 95, of Dom Francisco da Mata Mourisca, who until before his retirement in 2008, was the oldest bishop member of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST).
ANGOP
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