Africa-Press – Angola. The sound of drumming accompanied by songs of thanks in the local language draws the attention of our reporting team upon arrival at the village of Cafu, 135 kilometers from the city of Ondjiva, Cunene province. The intention is to verify the water transfer system, from the Cunene River, to the localities of Ombala-Yo-Mungo (municipality of Ombadja), Namacunde and Ndombondola. The percussion is performed by an apparently 38-year-old woman, who, with mastery, produces melodic and contagious sounds, leading her peers to perform various touches of traditional dances. The reason for the party is the inauguration, today, of the referred project that appears to combat the effects of the drought in the province.
“The end of a dark period is approaching, which, for several years, terrified the lives of the people of Cunene, which is why they celebrate”, describes the administrator of the village, Constantino António Chetekela, who stopped doing maintenance on his The person in charge remembers, with melancholy, that, before the construction of the water transfer system, they were forced to walk between 20 and 30 kilometers in search of the liquid, for consumption and to give the cattle to drink. ” It was not easy. There were very difficult moments. During the walk, looking for water, many animals died along the way,” he recalls.
Constantino António Chetekela pointed out that the most difficult time was 2019, when there was a severe drought in the southern part of the country, especially Cunene. He estimates that, at that time, in the municipality of Ombanja alone, about ten thousand heads of cattle died due to lack of water.
Sebastião Vicente, one of the victims of the effects of the drought, said he had lost 50 head of cattle. “It was very revolting to see the animals dying, without being able to do anything”, he said.
The administrator of the town-action of Cafu, the locality where the pumping plant for the water transfer system is located – practically the heart of the project – said that the announcement and the start of construction of the water transfer system made the people very happy. .
“Seeing it completed, today, I can say that the time has come to exchange tears for smiles. Water, which was found kilometers away, is now just a few meters from our homes!”, he highlighted, with a smile on his face. lips.
transfer system
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 Om-bandja. It is one of the first concrete responses to the problem of drought in Cunene province since Angola’s independence, that is, 45 years ago.
Even before its existence, 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 of them were negative.
“These drillings have been done empirically and are only spending money”, said the governor of Cunene, Gerdina Didalelwa, during the President’s visit to the province in July last year.
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, with a length 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 cattle. 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 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.
The director of the National Institute of Water Resources of the Ministry of Energy and Water, Manuel Quintino, mentioned, during his participation in the third edition of Café CIPRA, that other projects with the same purpose are still under construction in Cunene province. He said that structuring project number 2 is under construction in the Cuvelai Hydrographic Basin, which consists of the construction of the Calucuve dam, associated with a channel and about 44 chimpacas.
“The dam itself has a height of 19 meters, will have a development of about 1829 meters and will contain a reservoir with a capacity of 100 million cubic meters”, he clarified.
Manuel Quintino pointed out that, in the same basin as the Cuvelai, the construction of structuring project number 3 started, which is the construction of the Ndoe dam, also associated with a channel that will carry water from the locality of Ndue to Embundo. This channel will have an approximate length of 81 kilometers and will be associated with 15 chimpacas.
“All these projects that I mentioned are located on the left bank of the Cunene River”, stressed Ma-nuel Quintino, indicating the start of other actions also on the right bank.
“We are talking about an intervention at the level of the municipalities of Cahama and Cu-roca”, he explained. In Cahama, he continued, the rehabilitation of a small dam in the section of Cova do Leão is foreseen, which will later allow the use of this water to supply some communal centers. He said that this project is called “Projecto Cu-nene 8”, comprising three lots and budgeted at around US$260 million.
A prediction to come true
On his second working visit to Cunene, last year, the President of the Republic assured that, with the start of these projects, the effects of the drought in the province would be significantly reduced.
“This means that the suffering of populations and animals here in Cunene province will change radically in the coming years. We estimate that it will be from 2023 onwards, as these projects are concluded”, he predicted, at the high.
Cunene province has had a conventional system for capturing, treating and distributing drinking water since 2014, with a length of 172 kilometers and a capacity of 1024 cubic meters of water per hour, starting from Ombadja, in the village of Xangongo. It also has a water distribution system from OmbalaYo Mun-go, inaugurated last year, which benefits 2200 people. The province also has 7,100 household connections.
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