Ondjiva - At least 235.000 people from Ombadja, Cuanhama and Namacunde municipalities will benefit from drinking water under the project of transfer from the Cafu capture station from Cunene river, inaugurated this Monday by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
The Cafu collection and pumping station is the first of five projects of the programme of structural actions to combat the effects of drought in Cunene province.
The project is estimated to cost 44.3 billion kwanzas and will also make it possible to supply water to 250,000 animals and irrigate 5,000 hectares of agricultural fields.
The construction contract for the canal was decided after a visit by the President of the Republic to the Cacimbas (artisanal boreholes) in Ombala Yo Mungo, Ombadja municipality, in May 2019, at the time affected by a severe drought.
At the time, about 857,000 people, corresponding to 178,000 families, residing in 436 critical localities, had been affected by the drought, as well as the death of 72,000 cattle was recorded due to scarcity of water and pasture.
Due to the phenomenon, 276 schools had to close, motivated by the withdrawal of 54,490 students who moved to the transhumance areas.
The collection system includes metallic structures for the suction chamber and water intake area, an electrical substation building with three generator groups with a capacity of one megawatt and a one-dimensional reservoir, and a set of solar panels capable of generating 1.5 megawatts of energy.
It has an open-air canal, with a length of around 160 kilometres, with the main canal running 47 kilometres from the Cafu station to Ombala yo Mungo and two others linking the municipalities of Ndombondola (55 km) and Namacunde (53 km).
The project has 30 chimpacas (water reservoir), which are 100 metres long, 50 metres wide, five to six metres deep and water storage capacity of between 25,000 and 30,000 cubic metres.
The project took into account an environmental study that includes a Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol, as well as sharing information with Namibia.
The work carried out by the company Sinohydro has guaranteed direct employment for 3,477 workers.
