Mozambique: Águas da Região Norte denies lack of chemicals for water treatment

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Mozambique: Águas da Região Norte denies lack of chemicals for water treatment

11:23 CAT | 28 Feb 2025

File photo: O País

The company Águas da Região Norte (AdRN) guarantees that it has chemicals for water treatment for the city of Nampula, also ensuring that the level of turbidity observed in some parts of the city is within legal parameters.

AdRN called the press on Thursday to show the water production process from the Water Treatment Plant, which is located next to the dam on the Monapo River, 12 km from the city of Nampula, after information circulated indicating that there was a lack of chemicals for water treatment.

Emerson Chembene, director for the Nacala Operational Area, gave a demonstration of the entire process. “As you can see, we have turbidity in raw water, in this case river water, of close to a thousand MTUS. It is very high. When this happens, it is a very fundamental parameter for the operation of the system, which is the alkalinity process. This is what is being determined.

This process tells us the level of capacity that the river water has to neutralize the acids. With this information, we can now more or less understand how the system should operate. As we saw earlier, the coagulation process and the process of adding aluminum sulfate and hydrated lime. All of this depends on this operational parameter,” he explained.

The production of water for human consumption is regulated by ministerial decree no. 180/2004, of September 15, which defines the physical and chemical parameters for water to be considered potable or not.

“It will tell us, at each stage, what is the optimal quantity, based on the turbidity of the raw water, that we have to add to the system to achieve the water quality required by both the WHO and AUARA. We take each sample of treated water to the laboratory and perform a test.”

But, after all, does the company have chemical products for water treatment in the city of Nampula or not? This was the question that “O País” put to Ermelindo Bonifacio, director of the Operational Area in Nampula.

“We would like to inform you that we have all the appropriate stocks and, at this very moment, we have stocks that will last for up to seven days. And, within three days, we will receive a larger quantity, for more than thirty days.”

In some cases, the water that comes out of the taps is somewhat cloudy. The company admits that some cases are related to the infiltration of unsuitable water, due to vandalism of the pipes, especially in suburban neighbourhoods.

Source: O País