Mozambique: Maputo municipality acknowledges ineffectiveness of water pumping in Magoanine

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Mozambique: Maputo municipality acknowledges ineffectiveness of water pumping in Magoanine

11:59 CAT | 26 Feb 2025

File photo: O País

Maputo municipality has acknowledged the ineffectiveness of rainwater pumping in the Magoanine A neighbourhood, blaming the contractor responsible for purchasing the motor pumps for the delay in delivering the equipment.

The recent rain in Maputo have worsened the plight of neighbourhood residents, some of whose houses remain flooded, and with little sign of having ever been inhabited.

Residents are forced to live with water in their backyards, and have been doing so for over a year. Not even the motor pumps allocated to pump the water away have been able to address the problem.

Residents say that the system is not working because of constant equipment breakdowns. “When it stops raining, the water tends to go down a little. Inside my house, for example, there was no water anymore, but with the recent rains the situation has worsened. I have to do a lot of exercise to be able to go out and walk around the yard,” says resident Júlio Mandlate.

Faced with this situation, people are improvising solutions to get around their yards. One has improvised bridges using tires and sandbags. “What we are going through in our homes is painful. We are not seeing the results of the motor pump allocated by the Municipality to pump out up the water.

They are out of order for a long time. In the meantime, we continue to suffer,” says Ernesto Chirindza, confessing that he has no solution to the problem and saying he will not abandon his house because he
cannot afford to rent in safe places.

Neighbourhood residents are asking the municipality to intervene to solve the problem. The municipality, in turn, recognizes the ineffectiveness of the current pumping strategy and blames the contractor responsible for purchasing the motor pumps for the delay in delivering the equipment.

“What we did as a municipality to minimize the problem for the population was to take our two pumps, which are not in good condition, and install them in this neighbourhood as an immediate solution. What we are seeing is that the motor pumps are not working properly,”

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Municipal Sanitation Company, Borges da Silva acknowledged.

The municipality guarantees that effective pumps will arrive by next week.

“We are currently making every effort to ensure that all the motor pumps planned in the project are installed in that location,” the municipality explains, saying it is putting pressure on the contractor.

Source: O País