Pure power: the dam at Capanda is the biggest single project in the country

Waterworks to provide drinkable supplies
Efforts are underway to extend the supply network, make it pay for itself, and to boost hydroelectric potential

ven though several big rivers run through Angola, water supply has long been a problem in the capital, Luanda, and the country as a whole.
“Water is one of the principal sources of wealth we have in Angola,” says Luis Filipe da Silva, minister of energy and water. “But, in spite of having all these water resources, we don’t have a satisfactory supply of drinkable water”, he adds.
The civil war has damaged existing water facilities and impeded further development. “During the war, the first thing the enemy used to do was to destroy the energy and water systems,” the minister says. “This was one of their favorite targets.”
Angola’s supply network serves only the urban centers. Barely 30 percent of the entire population has access to drinking water and 15 percent to running piped water. Some areas, such as the provinces of Namibe and Cunene, suffer drought.

De Oliveira: price

Water has been expensive in the past. People living in the shantytowns scattered around Luanda have been paying up to a quarter of their meager incomes for untreated river water, delivered by private suppliers.
For Epal, the public water company that supplies the capital, the problem has been exacerbated
by Luanda’s rapid expansion since independence. “Luanda has grown since 1975 from 600,000 dwellers to four million, and this company does not have the capacity to deal with this growth unless its facilities are doubled,” says Epal director-general Diogenes de Oliveira.
“In 1975, we were able to provide 126 liters of water to each inhabitant, but today that figure has reduced to 50 liters.”
The cost of building a network of pipelines to deliver water to every single home in the city would be very high, according to estimates from non-governmental organizations. They favor a plan to install standpipes, each serving 50 to 100 families.

Epal has embarked upon projects to improve supplies in the capital, including one to bring fresh water to 600,000 people, says Mr de Oliveira, who is also vice-governor of Luanda.
The state is reducing subsidies to public firms such as Epal, which has been forced to take a business-oriented approach. “Now that the subsidy policy is over, we have to earn our own money to sustain our activities and finance our development,” says Mr de Oliveira.
In agreement with the World Bank, Epal has introduced a system of gradual increases in the water tariffs with the aim of making the system pay for itself in the long run. Mr de Oliveira adds: “We have to improve our commercial capacity because we came from a centrally planned economy in which the population was not in the habit of paying for the public services it received. We have to educate them that they should pay the tariffs according to the established price list.”

Doubling capacity
Angola has considerable hydroelectric potential. A 520MW power station at Capanda on the River Cuanza came onstream in 1994, doubling generation capacity. And a multi-million dollar dam, the biggest building project in the country, is being constructed there by Gamek.
The Epupa hydroelectric dam on the Cunene river is to be built between Ruacana and the mouth of the Cunene on the Atlantic coast.