About 23,000 residents of the border towns of Namaacha, in Mozambique, and Lomahasha, in the Kingdom of Eswatini, will share drinking water supply infrastructure from next year.
The ministries overseeing water resources management in both countries yesterday laid the first stone for the construction of a water supply system serving both border towns, in an undertaking costing around one thousand million meticais.
Speaking at the launch of the project, Mozambique’s Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Carlos Mesquita, explained that the initiative comes as part of the operationalization of water resource sharing agreements between the two neighbouring countries, materialising a memorandum signed in 2009.
Mesquita stressed that the project aims to improve access to water, reduce water-related diseases, and promote public health, hygiene and development.
He indicated that financial constraints and the complexity of the project meant the work was divided into two phases, the first of which has resources already assured by the German Bank KFW, through the Regional Fund for Water and Sanitation Infrastructures of the Southern African Development Community.
This first phase will increase water storage through the construction of two new 5,100 cubic metre reservoirs in Namaacha, and foresees the construction of a 32-kilometre pipeline from the Simunye Water Treatment Plant to Namaacha.
Eswatini’s Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, Prince Dlamine, highlighted that the project would strengthen relations between the two governments, and that improving access to water was vital for communities that have a history of sharing the Umbeluzi River.
The works were awarded to a Chinese construction company and are expected to begin in July, lasting 18 months.
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