Luanda – Over 100,000 US dollars (equivalent to 83 million kwanzas) are available to fund the project called OMAZA, which aims to improve access to water and health security in the Calumbo market in Viana municipality and in the Mazozo and Cabala communities in the municipality of Icolo and Bengo in Luanda Province, an initiative funded by the Coca-Cola Angola System, ANGOP learnt about it on Tuesday in the country's capital.
The project, which will run for one year, starting in December 2023, is expected to strengthen the resilience of climate-vulnerable communities with more than 26 million litres of water a year and improve their capacity to manage water resources.
According to a press release, it is also estimated that OMAZA will directly benefit more than 1,500 families, 60% being young women or teenagers, making a historic impact.
The initiative of the Coca-Cola System in Angola and Refriango, in collaboration with the Piaget Institute Association of Angola (AIPA), also aims to continuously replenish communities with water and return the water used in the production of beverages to the environment, through treated wastewater, in accordance with local regulations, contributing to the sustainability of aquatic life.
With OMAZA, the selected communities will witness significant benefits, including access to three manual water pumps, as well as having a technical team to instruct community members how to use the water disinfection method known as Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS), that takes advantage of sunlight to make water drinkable. This initiative will also facilitate access to safer water and increase knowledge about health care, improving their lives and the local environment.
According to the note, the project expresses Coca-Cola's commitment to its 2030 Water Security Strategy by demonstrating a context-based approach to increasing water security by replenishing water with smart policies and ensuring responsible use of the precious liquid.
According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2020, between 75 and 250 million people on the African continent face water scarcity, due to a lack of clean water supply infrastructure, rapid population growth and long dry periods, factors that cause extremely serious water stress, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Refriango's Marketing Manager, Tânia Jardim, it is in this context that the OMAZA project has come about, to serve communities where it is urgent to facilitate access to clean water and provide populations with effective strategies for managing this resource.
She said that similar actions have a positive domino effect in several areas, such as improving public health and increasing the nutrition levels of those who benefit, as well as reinforcing sustainable agricultural practices and reducing regional asymmetries in the availability of services and basic living conditions.
In turn, the OMAZA general coordinator, Ana Perez highlighted the importance of this project by emphasizing that in the context of climate change, countries such as Angola face various threats, whose main point is water security for communities and the environment.
She considered that it is seen that promoting water and sanitation security is vital to creating a more sustainable Angola, which sees conservation and resilience as integral elements.
Also in this regard, the Marketing Director of Coca-Cola Angola, Paula Matoso, said that AIPA is a crucial partner in building sustainable communities through access to drinking water and sanitation, a fact that benefits all the partners who are part of this project, adding that in addition to this project, the American company efforts is also focused on the initiative related to the clean water access in the scope of the RAIN programme which was implemented in 2010 in the communes of Funda and Bom-Jesus in Luanda Province.
In addition to these programmes, the company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, based in Nebraska, USA, also highlighted the installation of a water pump in the municipality of Bocoio, in the southern province of Benguela, on 22 March this year, an initiative that has already benefited 3,000 people in the community of Embandi, 40 kilometres from the municipality's headquarters.
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