Africa-Press – Angola. The provinces of Huíla, Na-mibe and Cuanza-Sul will also benefit from a project to combat the effects of drought, similar to the one built in Cafu, in Cunene.
The information was released yesterday in Luanda by the chairman of the Board of Directors of Power China Internacional Group Limitada, which builds the infrastructure, at the end of the audience with the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
Ji Xiaoyong, who went to the Presidential Palace to inform the Head of State about the completion of complementary works on the Cafu canal, said that works related to the construction of infrastructure in those provinces were already underway.
“We have already finished our work in the province of Cunene, referring to the construction of the Cafu canal to combat drought. Now, we are developing the same projects in the other provinces of southern Angola, namely Huíla, Namibe and Cuanza-Sul” , he pointed out.
The water transfer system, from the Cunene River, to the localities of Ombala-yo-Mungo, Namacunde and Ndombondola, has its heart in the village of Cafu, commune of Xangongo, municipality of Ombadja.
It is one of the first concrete responses to the problem of drought in Cunene province since Angola’s independence. Before that, the problem of drought in Cunene province was fought with water holes.
More than 700 boreholes were opened throughout the province, which were unable to alleviate the suffering of the population, as most were negative.
The water transfer system is part of a range of the first three structuring projects to combat the effects of drought, approved for Cunene province, and started in 2019.
Its main components are the pumping station which, in a first phase, will capture and pump two cubic meters of water per second, that is, two thousand liters.
It has a pressurized pipeline with an approximate length of ten kilometers, a general conduit channel of 47 kilometers and, immediately after, in lot 1, a bifurcation with two channels, being the East and the West.
The East channel, which will take the water to Namacunde, has an approximate length of 55 kilometers. The West, which heads towards the village of Ndombondola, has an approximate extension of the first.
In addition to the channels, the water transfer system also has 30 chimpacas (water reservoirs) and 93 drinking fountains for people and livestock.
Each of the chimpacas measures 100 meters long, 50 meters wide, five to six meters deep and has a water storage capacity ranging from 25,000 cubic meters to 30,000 cubic meters.
Budgeted at around US$136 million, the project is benefiting 235,000 people, 250,000 head of cattle and reserves an area of approximately 5,000 hectares for the practice of irrigated agriculture.
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