The first stone for the construction of the dam over the Bero River, in the municipality of Moçâmedes, Namibe province, was laid this Wednesday by the Minister of Energy and Water, João Baptista Borges.
The infrastructure, whose launch was attended by the provincial governor, Archer Mangueira, will have a capacity to store 81 million cubic meters of water and aims to mitigate the effects of drought in the region, ensure essential water supply for agriculture, local development, and improve the quality of life of communities.
The project, estimated at around 285 million dollars, will be built over 36 months and is expected to generate five thousand five hundred jobs.
The minister pointed out that the event symbolically marks the beginning of a project that has the conditions to be executed without significant risks or stoppages, in a province with more than 700 thousand inhabitants.
According to the minister, population growth and various economic activities have been putting pressure on the limited water availability in Namibe, which consists mainly of underground water—a situation that needs to be reversed.
He mentioned that the government decided to carry out studies leading to the concession of large water reservoirs in the main basins that flow down to the Huíla plateau and discharge along the Namibe coast, but which unfortunately are intermittent.
“It was thus that, in 2021, the territorial scope of the PCESSS was expanded to include the provinces of Namibe and Huíla, joining Cunene, forming the three provinces of southern Angola, and within this framework, the construction of six large dams was approved,” he recalled.
João Baptista Borges considered that the future dam will strengthen the city’s water capacity, currently supplied by artesian wells, and support agricultural and livestock development along the Bero valley, a zone of significant agricultural activity.
In addition to this project, the province has another project divided into three lots that includes the recovery and dredging of other infrastructures, among 21 masonry stone dams and water retention reservoirs in the municipalities of Bibala, Camucuio, and Moçâmedes.
Source: Angop
