The heavy rain that fell in the early hours of Sunday over the province of Cabinda caused the death of three people, two children aged 6 and 8 and a 17-year-old teenager, in the Povo Grande and Buco-Ngoio neighborhoods, on the outskirts of the city. In response, the Government promises to relocate some families who are in risk areas
The victims were surprised when the houses where they lived, built with precarious material (adobe), might not withstand the water load and ended up collapsing on them. The provincial governor of Cabinda, Mara Quiosa, announced, following traveling to various parts of the city and peripheral neighborhoods to check the damage caused by the rain, that the government will, in the coming days, relocate some of the families who are in areas of risk.
“We have planned for the next 15 days, the relocation of some families that are currently residing on the Tchizo hill to safer areas, specifically in the Talisumbi area”, he highlighted. Mara Quiosa, who seemed embarrassed by this misfortune, lamented that, whenever it rains in the province, houses are reported to collapse, especially those built in risk areas.
“We continue to appeal to our populations regarding the need to stop building in water crossing areas to preserve our well-being and people’s lives.” In relation to the victims mentioned above, the minister guaranteed that the Provincial Secretariat for Social Action, Family and Gender Equality will work to guarantee the necessary support for the families of the victims, “in view of a very delicate situation that we are experiencing at the moment”, she highlighted .
In addition to the fatalities, the rain caused considerable damage, leaving a trail of destruction on some access roads and the flooding of 205 houses in the Chiweca, A Resistência and Gika neighborhoods. The data also indicates that two public lighting posts and an equal number of electricity distribution posts fell in the Cadula area.
New ravines
There has also been the emergence of new ravines due to the force of the current of rainwater, which is causing constraints on the movement of people and their goods. In the town of Chiazi, the rain caused a ravine to progress, causing the disintegration of the 1000 millimeter main pipeline that transports 550 liters of treated water per second from the Sassa-Zau ETA to the Tchizo and Simindele distribution centers.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of Empresa de Águas de Cabinda, João Baptista Franque, said that with the damage to the aforementioned pipeline, which supplies the Simendele distribution center, the neighborhoods around the perimeter of Subantando, 4 de Abril, Zongolo, Chinga are affected. and Lucola. In relation to the Tchizo distribution center, the peripheral neighborhoods of the city of Cabinda are out of supply, namely Povo Grande, Chiweca, Luvassa, Amílcar Cabral, Gika and Luta Continua.
“While the replacement work is being carried out, we still have an acceptable volume of around 22 thousand cubic meters that we will distribute intermittently over the next four days”, he stressed. Also as a result of the rain, two electricity transmission posts collapsed and ENDE technicians were called to the scene to isolate the cables of the branch in question, leaving the areas of Lombolombo and Amílcar Cabral without electricity.
Mota-engil works to end floods
According to Mara Quiosa, the flood situation that the city of Cabinda and the peripheral neighborhoods are experiencing involves new macro-drainage works, as the current rainwater drainage routes are very old and many of them date back to the colonial era and have given signs of not being able to support demand. To this end, he added that the work of a detailed survey of the needs in terms of macro-drainage for the city of Cabinda has already been carried out by the company Mota-Engil.
BY: Alberto Coelho, Cabinda
