Africa-Press – Angola. Work to fix the breakage in the levee on the left bank of the Cavaco River, in the municipality of Benguela, is already underway, to minimize the risk of new floods, especially in the adjacent neighborhoods.
After the Sunday (12) floods that devastated several areas of Benguela, leaving 8 dead and more than 10,000 displaced, the level of the Cavaco River has begun to recede, creating the necessary conditions for the start of interventions at the site where the floodbank burst.
For an overview of the progress of the work, the Benguela provincial governor, Manuel Nunes Júnior, was in the Seta Antiga neighborhood on Tuesday (14), where the dike burst and the Cavaco River overflowed, causing flooding in several neighborhoods.
During the visit, the governor received explanations from inspector company DAR about how this emergency intervention, carried out by the contractor Omatapalo, is allowing the minimal restoration of the collapsed structure, to guarantee the safety of the riverside populations.
In statements to journalists, the governor of Benguela said he is optimistic about containing the waters of the Cavaco River, since, in his view, given the pace of the work, it will be possible to close the “pressure of the collapsed dike” within days.
He highlighted the “violence” of the Cavaco River waters that caused about 300 meters of the dike to collapse, causing major flooding in the riverside neighborhoods and part of the city of Benguela in a very short time.
“The epicenter from where all the flooding in the city of Benguela originated was here, in the Seta Antiga neighborhood,” he stressed, stating that in this emergency phase the focus is on solving the flooding issues starting from Seta Antiga.
Likewise, Manuel Nunes Júnior indicated that the technical intervention began on Monday, with the objective of repairing the part of the dike that broke and, with that, preventing the flow of water to the neighborhoods adjacent to the Cavaco riverbed.
He recalled that, on Sunday, the situation was very difficult, due to the instability of the flow, but the scenario began to reverse, so that two days after there is great progress in the intervention, as it is already possible to contain the waters to some extent.
For the government official, what is being done, at least for now, is an emergency action in the area where the entire flood originated, in an attempt to contain the waters and thus avoid similar situations.
Even so, he made it clear that there are other vulnerable areas along the river that also need emergency intervention.
On the other hand, the governor of Benguela stated that a more in-depth study will be carried out with experts in order to definitively resolve the systemic problem of flooding in the Cavaco River.
“We don’t want this to be a recurring situation in a year or two (…). We want a definitive solution”, he reinforced, emphasizing that, at the moment, the work is progressing satisfactorily.
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