By João Wassamba
Africa-Press – Angola. The electrification of the city and the implementation of higher education in Saurimo constitute the main gains of the capital of the province of Lunda-Sul in the 22 years of effective peace in the country, celebrated this Thursday, April 4th.
According to the National Electricity Distribution Company (ENDE), all neighborhoods in the city will have their transformation stations installed this year, thanks to the Government’s commitment to expanding the local electricity network.
An unimaginable situation before peace was achieved, Saurimo today has a total of 164 transformation stations, which provide 1.5 megawatts of energy, from the Chicapa hydroelectric plant, and 6.5 mW from the Power Station.
Currently, ENDE controls around 24 thousand customers in the municipality of Saurimo, of which 20 thousand are on the post-paid system and four thousand on pre-paid who benefit from energy from the public grid, according to its director, Cristiano Santana.
Santana explains that the energy supply is provided through the Nhama and Txicumina thermal plants, with 20 megawatts and 19.5 megawatts respectively, to the great satisfaction of their beneficiaries.
Joana Mota, resident in Candembe, one of Saurimo’s neighborhoods, is among the residents who began to benefit from electricity, for the first time in several years.
Very satisfied with the new scenario, Joana Mota confirms that the electrification of her area has allowed greater security in the area and the monitoring, through television, of the country’s and the province’s development projects, in particular.
University education
In the field of university construction and extension, the Saurimo University Center is being built, in an area of 12 thousand square meters, in the Luari neighborhood, to accommodate 60 classrooms and welcome students from the most varied courses such as History, Pedagogy, Nursing, Metallurgy, Civil Engineering, Geography, Administration and Management and Electricity.
The construction works for the Saurimo University Center, which began in June 2022, are budgeted at 40 million US dollars, jointly financed by Endiama and SODIAM, with completion scheduled for this year.
In a combination of metal structures and masonry, the infrastructure, attached to the Instituto Superior Politécnico de Saurimo (Universidade Lueji A’nkonde) was designed to accommodate up to two thousand and 350 students.
For historian Guilherme Martins, the work is an immeasurable gain for peace, as it will also contribute to the inclusion of students from other regions of the country.
Guilherme Martins recognizes, however, that there is still a lot to be done in the educational sector, given that there are plenty of schools, but the quality of teaching is deteriorating.
Other benefits of peace
Tranquility and freedom of movement throughout the country is also highlighted as being part of the first and main benefits of the peace achieved 22 years ago.
The citizens of Saurimo understand that the “remarkable progress” recorded in the field of freedom of movement of people and goods must be used by the Angolan Executive to galvanize the productive sector and combat hunger and poverty within families.
For greater social stability, the Executive is also called upon to invest even more in agriculture and livestock, with the help of commercial banks, which must be faster and less bureaucratic in granting credit.
Added to the list of peace gains is national reconciliation between Angolans and the harmony that exists throughout the country, with participatory and inclusive governance, aiming to bring citizens ever closer together.
For the governor of Lunda-Sul, Daniel Neto, it is important that national citizens are effectively aware of the investments that the Executive has been making in favor of the growth and development of the province.
He cited, as an example, the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM), which “brought more encouragement to the development of the most varied sectors”, with the construction of more schools, health centers, sidewalks, secondary and tertiary roads, executing 86 projects of the 91 planned.
In the education sector, 446 new classrooms were opened, financed under the PIIM, distributed in 41 schools, totaling 1,858 classrooms, actions that allowed 294,000 and five students to be enrolled in the current academic year, provided by four thousand and 624 teachers.
Still within the scope of the PIM, the health sector gained, in turn, 12 new health posts and a laboratory in the pediatric hospital, which also serves to train doctors in various specialties.
In total, the province of Lunda Sul currently has 140 health units, of which 35 are in the private sector, which are staffed by two thousand and 587 nurses and 116 doctors.
Health personnel recorded a significant increase since 2018, when the province was served by just 24 doctors and 1,779 nurses.
Mining sector
Over these 22 years of effective peace, Endiama and its economic partners have designed projects that aim to attract more investment in Lunda-Sul and other diamond regions.
The Saurimo Diamond Development Pole (PDDS) was built, a space whose main objective is to bring together mining companies, focusing on the diamond value chain, offering an adequate and necessary infrastructure for promoting and boosting the activity.
Opened on August 27, 2021, the PDDS is divided into three main areas, namely commercial, industrial and that reserved for the hybrid plant, with an investment of 77 million US dollars.
It has received investors who have already installed nine cutting factories and employed more than 500 young people, in a global investment of 112.8 million dollars.
At least 26 lots are still waiting for entrepreneurs interested in investing in the diamond cutting segment in the PDDS.
Furthermore, the investments carried out by Sociedade Mineira de Catoca and Endiama, within the framework of their social responsibility, have been building numerous social infrastructures, with emphasis on the snack factory, schools, health centers, among others.
The municipality of Saurimo has an estimated population of more than 534 thousand inhabitants, which represents 82 percent of the general population of Lunda-Sul.
ANGOP
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