Maputo — The Mozambican government intends to carry out 876,335 new household water connections across the country by 2036.
According to Fernando Rafael, Mozambican Minister of Public Works, Housing, and Water Resources, speaking on Monday, in Maputo, at the opening of the National Induction and Institutional Alignment Meeting of the publicly-owned institute Águas de Moçambique, under the ProÁguas 2026-2036 Program, the country will build 5,336 standpipes and 20,074 dispersed water points, aiming to expand supply access across the country.
"This vision must guide every decision we make and every project we implement. The reforms currently underway in the sub-sector and the implementation of the ProÁguas 2026-2036 Program must translate into greater access to potable water and sanitation for all Mozambicans", he said.
"Water must be regarded as a resource for social inclusion, economic development, and reduction of inequalities. Water is crucial for social inclusion, economic development, and the reduction of regional inequalities", he added.
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According to the minister, regarding sanitation, the program intends to build new infrastructures and transition 3.69 million households into communities free from open defecation.
"Institutional reforms and ProÁguas are part of the same sector transformation process. The goal is to strengthen institutions and improve service delivery. The performance of our governance must be measured by the number of families with access to water, improvements in supply continuity, reductions in non-revenue water, and financial sustainability", he said.
He also instructed the water and sanitation companies to speed up project execution, assess the condition of existing systems, and resize infrastructure that no longer meets growing demand.
The Ministry had also announced that the country needs approximately 4.5 billion US dollars to expand the access to water, as well as to improve sanitation and water resource management, and "the government is already mobilizing the amount in order to structuring projects over the next decade."
