The Government of Mozambique needs one billion meticais (€14.4 million) to rehabilitate the Locumue dam, which supplies water to the city of Lichinga, in the northern province of Niassa, an official source said.
“We will continue to mobilize cooperation partners to see if they can initiate or advance with support and then, with the approved State Budget, naturally proceed with the [rehabilitation] implementation,” said the Secretary of State for the province of Niassa, Silva Livone, quoted today by the media.
The rehabilitation project of the dam that supplies Lichinga, the provincial capital, began in March 2019. However, in 2020, the contractor terminated the contract due to an alleged lack of funds.
“When the contractor terminated the contract, the works were at 34%. In 2023, we received guidance at the central level to launch a new tender to hire a new contractor and a new inspector (…), what we are now waiting for is the budget approval to see if the funds we requested for our budget this year will be made available or not,” explained the director of the Northern Regional Water Administration (ARA-Norte) in Lichinga, Santos David.
With the rehabilitation, the Locumue dam will retain around 3.4 million cubic meters of water, compared to the current 1.3 million, and will be 21 meters high, compared to the current seven meters.
Lusa
