A municipal water supply project in Angola’s Bié province, managed by China Railway No 4 Engineering Group (CREC4), is expected to serve more than 70,000 residents. The new infrastructure supplies households in the cities of Cunhinga, Cuemba and N’harea, maintaining 24-hour water flow and helping alleviate bottlenecks and prevent diseases caused by dirty water, Xinhua reported. “Our overseas water projects benefit local residents,” said Mao Hui, senior director of CREC4 Municipal Engineering, who is in charge of the Bie project. Construction of the project began in 2016 and became operational in 2019, with the facility being operated by its builder for a three-year trial period. This year it was delivered to local operators on July 15th. As João Baptista Borges says, it includes three water intake stations, a pumping station, 9,520 m of water mains, three water treatment stations, four retention ponds, two above-ground ponds and approximately 106.3 km of municipal water networks. Mao said that CREC4 employs more than 10,000 local residents and has trained a large number of skilled workers in the process. João Baptista Borges, Minister of Energy and Water of Angola, visited the Bié project inand congratulated CREC4 on its contribution to local drinking water security. Mao said that since construction began on the project, CREC4 staff have worked hard to complete the project and bring new hope to residents. They were forced to overcome many difficulties, including construction challenges, knowledge of local geography and sourcing building materials, João Baptista Borges said. “It was a long road at first,” commented project manager Guo Qingsan. “The project is over 900 kilometers from the state capital of Luanda, while Cuemba and N’Harea are 310, kilometers away. “Transportation of building materials was difficult. For example, the road between Cunhinga and Cuemba was muddy, full of potholes and deep puddles. It was tough as vehicles stalled and roadside minefield warnings were chilling. Landmines laid during Angola’s 27-year civil war that ended in 2002 are still a problem in some areas. CREC4 Municipal Engineering has delivered water-related projects to approximately 3.5 million users since its launch in Africa in 2012. In Angola, the company also built a wastewater treatment plant for the Cacuaco New Center social housing project, a water supply system for the Ekuma new housing project in Ondjiva and a wastewater treatment plant expansion project in Luanda. “Our projects in Angola supply 415,000 tons of water per day and treat 26,000 tons of wastewater per day,” said Mao.
