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Mozambique: Massingir Dam Repair to Cost 15 Million Dollars
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
16 July 2008
Posted to the web 16 July 2008
Maputo
Repairs needed to the Massingir dam on the Elephants river, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, are estimated to cost about 15 million US dollars, the Mozambican government's official spokesperson, Deputy Education Minister Luis Covane told reporters on Tuesday.
A rupture occurred in one of the dam's floodgates on 22 May, causing localized flooding. One person was reported killed.
The dam did not collapse, as some people had feared, and the immediate problem was solved within two days. A South African technician who visited the dam discovered that a discharge pipe at the bottom of the dam had burst. The pipe that gave way was installed in 1976, and was thus over 30 years old.
At the time Olinda de Sousa, director of the southern regional water board (ARA-Sul), estimated that it would cost around 13 million US dollars to repair the damage done, and render the dam completely safe.
Her estimate was not far wrong. The figure of 15 million derives from a report from the commission of inquiry set up by the government, and which the Cabinet analysed on Tuesday. The five member commission was headed by Alvaro Carmo Vaz, a dam engineering specialist.
The report cited technical problems in the dam, and suggested that contacts should be made with expert companies in these matters to recover the levels of security to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Covane said the government will continue studying this report in order to understand what exactly happened that caused the breach of the floodgate. The government has not discarded the possibility that, despite two years of supposedly thorough rehabilitation, when the dam was handed back to the authorities in 2007, it still had serious problems.
The rehabilitation work was on the floodgates, the installation of pumping equipment, and the strengthening of security against flooding.
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Covane did not speak of any deadlines to carry out the necessary repair work, but noted the importance of this dam to the irrigation systems that supply water to farmers along the Limpopo valley.
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