Maputo — About two million people in Mozambique's two most populous provinces, Zambezia and Nampula, are to benefit from clean drinking water, with the opening of 1,600 new water sources, 800 in each province.

To that end, the Mozambican government signed a financing agreement on Thursday with the Indian EXIM Bank for a loan of 60 million US dollars for the building of basic infrastructures.

The opening of these water sources is budgeted at 20 million US dollars.

Under this agreement, valid for three years, the first 40 million dollars have already been disbursed and were used in several projects in water supply, electrification, and agriculture in those two provinces.

The document was signed by the National Treasury director, Antonio Laice, on behalf of the Mozambican government, and Venkat Subramanian, chairperson of the EXIM Bank board.

On the occasion, Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang, who witnessed the ceremony, said that, with this project, people in the rural areas will have a better access to clean drinking water, which will reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, which are usually caused by consuming contaminated water.