The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $160 million loan deal for Mozambique to finance three projects in water supply, sanitation and roads, the official Mozambique News Agency reports here on Saturday.
AIM says $20 million will go towards emergency rehabilitation of the Massingir dam on the Elephants River in the southern province of Gaza. The dam suffered a rupture in one of its floodgates on 22 May, causing localized flooding.
The AfDB is also providing credit of $27 million to improve water supply and sanitation in Lichinga and Cuamba, the two major cities in the northern province of Niassa.
This will rehabilitate and expand the entire water extraction, treatment, storage and distribution system, with the result that a further 160,000 households will benefit from supplies of clean water.
According to AIM, this will raise the clean water coverage rate for Lichinga and Cuamba from nine per cent of the population to 70 per cent by 2015.
The agency quotes the Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia as saying the AfDB funding for the Massingir dam would make it possible to start immediately on far reaching interventions to rehabilitate and strengthen this infrastructure, which is vital for the development of agriculture in Gaza province.
“The dam would play a fundamental role in increasing agricultural production and productivity in line with the government’s Green Revolution strategy aimed at guaranteeing self-sufficiency in food production,” he said.
Source African Press Agency
