The Ministry of Energy and Water of Angola, through its National Water Department, has awarded Befesa, in partnership with the company Riogersa, the "Xangongo-Ondjiva drinking water production and supply system" for the southern part of the country, on the border with Namibia, for a total amount of 101 million dollars. Both projects will be financed by a credit line that the Angolan Ministry of Finance has with Deutsche Bank.

This contract, part of the master trans-frontier plan with Namibia to supply water to the north of this south African country, will supply safe drinking water, which has not been available to date, on a continuous basis to a large part of Cunene province, benefiting approximately 250,000 people in one of the most hard hit provinces by the Angolan conflict.

The deadline for the implementation of this Xangongo to Ondjiva drinking water supply project is 24 months and includes the following operations: a drinking water treatment station at Xangongo, a drinking water tank at Xangongo, collecting water from the Cunene River (Xangongo), four pumping stations, supply pipes (approximately 100 kilometres), two elevated tanks (Môngua, Ondjiva) and four more on the surface (Môngua, Missão de Môngua, Bulanganga, Ondjiva).

For Javier Molina, chairman of Befesa, "this new product will enable us to continue our basic supply infrastructure construction activities with a view to improving hygiene-health conditions and the availability of drinking water to underprivileged areas that lack this vital and basic resource, hence, contributing to their development".

Befesa, an environmental service subsidiary company of Abengoa, bases its activities on the provision of environmental services to industry and on the construction of environmental infrastructure. It is quoted on the Stock Market and ended 2007 with a capitalisation of over 550 million euros (www.befesa.es).

For further information, please contact: coyunturaindustrial@spri.es

Source: ACLIMA