Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican government's Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund (FIPAG) on Thursday signed contracts with two Chinese companies to expand water supply in the southern cities of Xai-Xai, Chokwe, Inhambane and Maxixe.
China Geo Engineering won the tender for the work in Xai-Xai and Chokwe, which was launched in December 2004.
The Mozambican government is paying for 10% of the work, while the rest of the funds will come from the African Development Bank (ADB). According to ADB regional director Alex Rugama, the ADB is providing a loan of US$28 million to finance the expansion.
The water supply network in all four cities is obsolete. Small diameter pipes are used in Maxixe, Inhambane and Chokwe, leading to low water pressure, while FIPAG describes the Xai-Xai as "in a very poor state with huge losses of water".
The work in the four cities should lead to new reservoirs, new tubing, thousands of new connections and replacement of old ones, and the construction of dozens of new standpipes.
When the work is completed, the distribution of water in all four cities will be 24 hours a day (whereas in Xai-Xai, for example, water is only pumped for nine hours a day).
The number of people served by the piped water system will rise from 57 percent to 84 percent of Inhambane's population of about 43,000.
In Maxixe, coverage should rise from a mere 8 percent to 42 percent of a population that is slightly more than 50,000.
As for Chokwe, with a total population of around 58,000, the numbers served by the water supply system will rise from 55 to 70 percent.
In the largest of the four cities, Xai-Xai, only 40 percent of the population of 117,000 are supplied from the existing system. After the expansion that proportion should more than double, to 81 percent.
When the entire expansion work is completed, in 2007, an extra 80,000 people should be drinking safe water from the public network.
Public Works Minister Felicio Zacarias said during the signing ceremony that expanding water supply to these cities was part of the government's drive "to achieve the Millennium Development Goals to the benefit of the social and economic well-being of the public".
