Mozambique: Nyusi inaugurates Ponta do Ouro water system – Watch

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Mozambique: Nyusi inaugurates Ponta do Ouro water system – Watch

6:00 CAT | 23 Oct 2020

Photo: Presidency of the Republic of Mozambique

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday inaugurated a new water supply system in the locality of Ponta de Ouro, in the southernmost district of Matutuine, which will benefit over 20,000 people.

It took a year to build the system, at a cost of 67 million meticais (about 930,000 US dollars). It was financed out of the government’s own National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (PRAVIDA) which has a total budget of 4.8 billion meticais.

The pipes in the new system run for 28 kilometres. There are 500 domestic connections, and eight standpipes, each with two taps. Before the new system was built only about 4,000 people had access to clean drinking water.

Nyusi told the inauguration ceremony that people in Ponta de Ouro will no longer have to walk long distances to obtain water. “You’re going to have water in your back yard”, he said, “or no more than a 50 metres walk away”.

Water was also essential in the fight against the Covid-19 respiratory disease, since frequent washing of hands is a key preventive measure.

“In this time of Covid-19, we wash our hands often, and our clothes, we take more baths, we disinfect more”, he said. “So this water has come at the right moment to help us”.

Nonetheless, he called for rational use of water because “water is a finite resource. It runs out. We have to take care of the water. We have to avoid vandalising the system, since that will imply abandoning the projects we are building elsewhere, so that we come back and look after this one again”.

PRAVIDA intends to set up a water supply network which will benefit over a million people in various parts of the country.