Africa-Press – Angola. Peripheral neighborhoods of the city of Huambo, for example, Kakelewa, Calundo, Viação, Vila Graça and Santa Iria, already benefit from drinking water, within the scope of the supply network extension program, which includes the assembly of meters and household connections.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of Empresa de Águas e Saneamento do Huambo, Adolfo Gomes, said yesterday that the expansion of the water treatment and distribution network to the peripheral neighborhoods of the city of Huambo provides for 41,000 household connections. The project started in 2016 and its completion is scheduled for next year. The works, he said, are being financed by the World Bank.
According to Adolfo Gomes, after the works are completed, the number of customers will increase from 50,000 to more than 60,000, in the cities of Huambo and in the Faustino Muteka Center, in the municipality of Caála. He added that work is currently underway to expand the water distribution network in the Katchidombe, Sassonde I and II, Santo António, Casseque I and II neighborhoods, with the installation of meters and taps in homes.
Adolfo Elias explained that the water collection system from the Kulimahãla River, built in the 1940s, was no longer meeting the needs, due to population growth, which forced, in 2015, the Government of Huambo to start a project to build a collection, treatment and distribution system.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of Empresa de Águas e Saneamento said that the new water supply system, with the capacity to pump 46,000 cubic meters per day, in the testing phase of the equipment, will work simultaneously with the old system of the river. Kulimahala.
He added that several private and institutional customers have accumulated debts since 2020 and that awareness campaigns are underway to ensure that they are paid, to avoid cuts and fines.
He clarified that in the municipalities the responsibility lies with the administrations, which have teams that have provided technical and institutional support where necessary.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of Empresas de Águas e Saneamento do Huambo urges communities not to consume untreated water, especially from waterholes, close to septic tanks, sewers, cemeteries and other risky places, due to high surface and underground contamination.
According to the manager, untreated water is contributing to the increase in diseases such as typhoid, acute diarrhea, cholera and other waterborne diseases.
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