Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic assured, this Monday (4), in the village of Cafu, municipality of Ombadja, that the province of Cunene will no longer be what it was five years ago, referring to the difficult moments it has gone through, until here, caused by the effects of regular drought in this region of the country.
João Lourenço made the statement after inaugurating the water transfer system from the Cunene River, in the Cafu section, to supply the towns of Om-bala Yo Mungo, Namacunde and Ndombondola, areas of this province that have been hit hard by the drought.
“With all this water, there is no reason why, in the coming years, the populations will continue to wait for food aid, since they will be able to produce their own food, which will be used not only for self-consumption, but also , to put on the market and, with them, earn some money to satisfy other types of needs”, he highlighted.
The President of the Republic, who was speaking to the press at the end of the inauguration of the infrastructure, said that the project represents a great victory for the population of Cunene, but does not end the program planned to combat the effects of the drought in the province.
“This project is just the beginning of a broad program that will benefit not only the populations that are victims of drought in Cunene province, but also in Namibe and Huíla”, highlighted the Head of State, for whom the significance of this moment represents the victory over the suffering of the populations of Cunene.
He said that, still in Cunene province, there are other projects underway, which will join the water transfer system from the Cunene River, to change the lives of local populations in the coming years.
“There will be more water, because we understand that, in order to have more development, we need to have two essential goods: energy and water”, he stressed.
At another time, when speaking to the population who went to the site to witness the inauguration of the project, the President of the Republic, who was accompanied by the First Lady of the Republic, Ana Dias Lourenço, several members of the executive and senior management Cabinet, appealed to them to take advantage of this moment to dedicate themselves also to Agriculture and not limit themselves to cattle raising.
He announced that the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and some Non-Governmental Organizations will help in this process: “If they used to cultivate a piece of massango, with this water, they can now cultivate one hectare, two hectares or more”.
He encouraged the population to grow corn, beans, vegetables and other food products, especially for children who must be well fed. To encourage the practice of Agriculture in the area, the President offered, symbolically, tractors, plows, motor-cultivators and other inputs to the populations. “From now on, it will only be joy and progress,” he wished.
Appeal To Good Use
On the occasion, the President of the Republic appealed to the population to make responsible use of the project, avoiding acts that jeopardize the proper functioning, so as not to run out of water again.
He recalled that life in the villages will now depend on the care that the population will give to the canal. “No one kills the source of life, which has to be well protected and the responsibility for its protection is yours. This work was not handed over to the President, but to the populations of Cunene”, he clarified.
Reason For The Project
The President of the Republic recalled that the initiative to start the construction of the water transfer system from the Cunene River was born during the first visit he made to the province, in 2019, having, on the occasion, noted the suffering that the population faced for get water.
“We saw young people, even girls, going down to a great depth of the well, with the risk of collapsing, to go up with a little water in the bucket, often with more mud than water”, he recalled, adding that it was because It is for this reason that the program to combat the effects of drought in the southern part of the country was designed.
The President said that a project like the one that has just been inaugurated in Cunene will also be born in the provinces of Huíla and Namibe. After the inauguration of the water transfer system from the Cunene River, João Lourenço visited the entire length of the project’s pipeline. In each village he passed, he was strongly applauded by the residents, who waved him with the gesture of thanks.
Bishop of Cunene
The Bishop of the Diocese of Ondjiva, Dom Pio Hipunyati, present at the event, said that this project will significantly reduce the suffering of populations affected by drought in Cunene, as it will permanently supply water for consumption and for watering livestock, as well as for agricultural practice.
“It means that many kids will no longer drop out of school as they have been until now, because of transhumance in search of pasture and water in other regions”, he stressed.
For the king of the Kwanhamas, Jerónimo Haleinge, President João Lourenço solved a problem that dated back to colonial times. “We think that the problem of water shortages in Cunene province is minimized”, he clarified.
Transfer System
The water transfer system from the Cunene River to the towns of Om-bala 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. Even before its existence, the problem of drought 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 of them 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 US$136 million, the project will benefit 235,000 people, 250,000 head of cattle and reserve an area of approximately 5,000 hectares for the practice of irrigated agriculture.
João Lourenço’s work schedule, in Cunene, reserves, for today, a mass act, in which he will address the local population.
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