The population of the locality of Pessane, in Maputo province, on Thursday took advantage of a visit by Veronica Macamo, chairperson of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to complain about shortages of clean drinking water.
People who spoke at a rally in Pessane addressed by Macamo said that water shortages had been worsened by drought, leading to poor harvests and compromising all efforts to fight against poverty.
According to a press release from the Assembly, one Pessane resident, Baita Cossa, told Macamo they had to fetch drinking water from Machava, in the city of Matola, several kilometres away.
Each 20 litre tin of water, sold by private suppliers, cost 20 to 25 meticais (about 70 US cents), which Cossa regarded as exorbitant.
Other speakers complained of the lack of electricity in Pessane, stock theft, poor care for the elderly in local health units, and delays in handling applications for identity documents.
“In this administrative post, we don’t have any electricity, and this leads to an increase in crime”, said a man named Raimundo Nanombe. “Stock thieves make us of the darkness to threaten people and steal their goats”.
Macamo, who was elected from the Maputo Province constituency, told the rally that all the complaints raised will be channelled to the relevant authorities in the central and provincial governments.
She added that in making such visits she wanted to inform her electorate of the work done in parliament, and to gather people’s impressions of the implementation of the government Economic and Social Plan for this year.
Pessane is far from the only area in Maputo province suffering water shortages. Earlier this week, the independent daily “O Pais” carried a report that over 60 per cent of the population of Namaacha district, on the border with Swaziland face water problems.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique / allAfrica.com, 24 June 2010
