Nyusi inaugurates US$12.8M Cuamba water treatment station in Zambezia, Mozambique – Video

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Nyusi inaugurates US$12.8M Cuamba water treatment station in Zambezia, Mozambique – Video

8:30 CAT | 27 Apr 2016

TVM / The new water treatment station will supply water to 72,000 people in the city of Cuamba

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday inaugurated a water treatment station in the city of Cuamba, in the northern province of Niassa.

The treatment station belongs to the government’s Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund (FIPAG), and the contractor was the China Henan International Cooperation Group (CHICO). The station cost 680 million meticais (about US$12.8 million, at current exchange rates), and the money was disbursed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Data from FIPAG indicated that the water impoundment, treatment and distribution system can now supply water to about 72,000 inhabitants of the city. In the first, experimental phase, the availability of water rises from the previous 1,200 cubic metres to 3,200 cubic metres a day, and the time during which water is distributed doubles, from eight to 16 hours a day. Eventually, the amount of water treated by the station will rise to 6,630 cubic metres a day.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Nyusi said that, if the government is to continue guaranteeing supplies of clean water to the population of Niassa, it needs an environment of peace. There are people “who want to put a brake on development”, he accused, clearly referring to the rebel movement Renamo, whose illicit militia has continued to stage ambushes on main roads in the centre of the country.

Peace was required so that water can reach other districts, Nyusi said, and so that Mozambicans can produce to feed themselves and sell the surplus crops. “The threats must end”, the President declared. “The people want roads, and roads are not built with war”.

“We promised to bring the train to Niassa, and this we shall do without war”, he promised. Nyusi was speaking about the branch line from Cuamba to the Niassa provincial capital, Lichinga, which has not been operating normally for decades. Once the railway is operating, the cost of transporting goods to the Niassa interior will fall sharply.

Nyusi added that by inaugurating the treatment station he had complied with a promise made to the people of Cuamba during the campaign for the October 2014 general elections.

During the campaign he had promised to conclude work begun by the country’s previous presidents. “The system we are inaugurating today was begun by President Joaquim Chissano in 2003”, Nyusi said. “It was continued under President Armando Guebuza, and today it is completed”.