Africa-Press – Cape verde. The government recognizes the need to create an alternative water intake point in São Vicente. The government also advocates strengthening the resilience of the Electra station in João Ribeiro to prevent the supply from being compromised again in the face of extreme events like the storm on the 11th.
Speaking to the press today, during a visit to the Electra station, the Minister of Internal Administration, Paulo Rocha, stated that these interventions should be considered as part of the island’s reconstruction plan.
“We have been discussing this, and obviously, the company is already aware of the interventions it needs to make to ensure greater resilience at this intake point, firstly, given the vulnerability of the equipment here in the event of an event like what happened. There is also discussion about an alternative intake point on another side of the island. It’s a large investment that needs to be considered, but I sincerely believe it’s justified, given the island’s size and vulnerabilities. All of this will be considered in the reconstruction plan: rebuilding so things can be even better and we can all be stronger,” he said.
Regarding the current situation, the governor highlights the work carried out to restore the island’s water supply, with the support of technicians from Electra and Cabnave, Portuguese Navy personnel, and private companies who collaborated in clearing the area and restoring the supply.
Antão Cruz, Electra’s executive director, states that the recent situation reinforces the need to strengthen the security of the current structure, as well as to establish additional collection and desalination points.
“There are several factors that indicate, and we are aware of them, that there is a need for resilience and the creation of additional collection points, and possibly also other desalination points. The distribution system on the island of São Vicente was already at a point where people had begun building above the reservoirs. Therefore, this implies that, even with the current network, some people no longer had access to water due to construction at very high levels. This means that work needs to be done. Electra had already identified some of these factors, but this situation has clearly exposed this greater concern.
The floods, which occurred over a week ago in São Vicente, left neighborhoods flooded, destroyed roads, bridges, and commercial establishments, affected the water and power supply, and caused nine deaths.
Electra has already resolved the supply problem and begun distributing water to various areas of the island.
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