Ondjiva - The Cunene River water transfer pipeline, from the Cafu region to Ondombodola, in Cunene, will be extended to 165 kilometres and 31 chimpacas (water reservoir), the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges said on Monday.
With a current extension of 160 kilometres of open canal and a set of 30 chimpacas, the system was inaugurated this Monday by the President, João Lourenço, to benefit about 235,000 inhabitants, 250,000 animals and the irrigation of 15,000 hectares of agricultural fields.
The minister said that work to extend the system by a further 5 kilometres and another chimpaca would begin next week, but without changes to the initial amount.
He said that in this way it was another gain for the region, as it made more water available to the populations living along and around the canal, thus preventing families and their livestock from migrating to other areas.
He recalled that the government had implemented the Programme to Combat the Effects of Drought in Southern Angola (PCESSA), estimated at over US$5 billion, to combat the negative effects of drought in the provinces of Cunene, Huila and Namibe, over the next six years.
The governor of Cunene, Gerdina Didalelwa, highlighted the importance of the project that will supply water to the population, considering it to be one of the biggest investments that the province has benefited from since the conquest of national independence.
She appealed to the population to take care of this infrastructure in order to prevent what is happening in the country, the vandalism of the social equipment, which compromises its normal functioning.
The project, located in Cafu village, Xangongo commune, Ombadja municipality, 135 kilometres from Ondjiva city, is part of the first three structuring projects to combat the effects of drought, approved for southern Cunene province.
