Drinking Water for Luanda in the Pipeline

LUANDA, Angola, November 20, 2003 (ENS) - Long suffering residents of Angola's capital city Luanda may soon have a clean, plentiful supply of drinking water. Angola's Cabinet Council on Wednesday approved a US$98 million investment project for the improvement of Luanda's water supply and distribution. A cabinet document released to the press states that the project "will demand the elaboration of a guiding plan for Luanda water supply and sanitation."

A portion of the funds is intended for the rehabilitation and replacement of Luanda's degraded water distribution network stretched beyond its limit in an attempt to serve the city's four million people.

Angola's capital city Luanda on the Atlantic Ocean (Photos courtesy Embassy of Angola to the UK)

Part of the project will be the construction of new water supply and distribution infrastructure in the Viana, Kilamba Kiaxi, and Maianga districts and the restoration of water networks in the municipalities of Rangel, Ingombota, Cazenga, and Maianga.

The state owned company Empresa Provincial de Agua de Luanda (EPAL), an agency under the Ministry of Energy and Water, is responsible for the supply, transportation and distribution of water in Luanda.

Angola is located on the southwest coast of Africa, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo to the north, Namibia to the south, and Zambia to the east.

It has been through one of the longest and bloodiest civil conflicts in Africa which ended in February 2002 with Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos still in power.

The 25 year civil war between government forces and the rebel movement National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) was responsible for an estimated 750,000 casualties and the displacement of about four million people within the country.

Large numbers of people escaping the fighting in the interior fled to the capital city. At independence in 1975, Luanda had about 700,000 inhabitants. Today, the population is over 3.8 million. The city's infrastructure, never designed to accommodate such huge numbers of people, is also damaged from the conflict.

The DeBeers diamond company building in downtown Luanda

United Nations agencies and NGOs, in close consultation with the government, will provide emergency assistance during 2004 to more than one million vulnerable people, supporting their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency, according to the cabinet and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Humanitarian partners will work to increase the delivery of social services aimed at providing better living conditions for more than 2.5 million people and strengthening their communities, OCHA says.

The plan will bridge the gap between emergency and recovery, based on rights enshrined in the Millennium Declaration and in the Angolan Constitution.

OCHA said Tuesday that the "coexistence of critical needs and recovery opportunities, typical of a transition phase, has been widely verified through assessment and planning conducted by partners during 2003."

The preparation of this appeal involved 11 UN agencies and 32 national and international NGOs presenting 112 projects. The UN country team and partners are seeking a total of US$ 262 million to fund their activities in Angola in 2004.