Caxito, Angola, 17 March – The project for supplying drinking water to rural areas will benefit around 80 percent of the country’s population, the Angolan minister for Energy and Water, Botelho de Vasconcelos said in Caxito, Bengo province Thursday.

Vasconcelos noted that the project, known as “Water for All” would increase the supply of drinking water by 20 percent per year, so that by 2012 80 percent of the population could drink treated water.

The minister, who met with the governor of the province, Jorge Dombolo, as well as the local government, and the companies to which the project’s tender had been granted, said that the program was in an experimental phase, in which four provinces were being covered: Cabinda, Uíge, Bengo and Benguela.

According to the minister, the pilot project for the collection, treatment and distribution of drinking water would go into operation in April of this year, and the Cabri area, in Bengo province had been chosen to launch the project.

He noted that the “Water for All” program was a “quite ambitious” national plan that was attracting the attention of many central government bodies, as well as of the international community, due to the size of the project.

The project is being put into practice by a commission coordinated by the minister for Energy and Water and made up of the ministers for Agriculture and Rural development, Industry, Territorial Administration, Health and by the secretary for the Council of Ministers. (macauhub)