By MOZTIMES
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Monday launched PROÁguas, the National Water Security Compact for 2026-2036, a programme budgeted at about 4.6 billion US dollars.
This programme promises to expand access to water, strengthen resilience to climate change, and reduce the sanitation deficit.
The launch comes at a time when Mozambique remains vulnerable to droughts, cyclones, floods and regular collapses in water supply, despite more than two decades of government programmes and international financing for the water sector.
According to data presented by Chapo at the launch ceremony, 62.6% of the population have access to clean drinking water, while sanitation covers only 38.2%. In the rural areas, sanitation coverage falls to 24.6%, which means that many thousands of households are dependent on defecating in the open air.
“PROÁguas is the most comprehensive and ambitious national platform for the transformation of the sector”, declared the President.
The numbers, however, show the scale of an old problem. In recent years, several programmes were launched by the previous governments to try to expand access to water, including the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (PRONASAR), supported by the World Bank, as well as investments linked to the programme “One District, One Dam”, and successive plans responding to droughts in the south of the country.
Despite this, cities such as Maputo, Beira, Tete and Quelimane still face frequent cuts in water supply, while rural communities walk for kilometres in search of safe water sources.
The pressure is tending to increase. Chapo warned that the Mozambican population could reach 45 million inhabitants by 2036, dramatically increasing the demand for water, irrigated agriculture, electricity and urban infrastructures.
The new compact seeks to raise water coverage to 75% by 2036, broken down into 92% in urban areas and 65% in the countryside. Sanitation coverage should reach 60%, according to the President.
Among the main investments that Chapo announced are the construction and rehabilitation of four large dams, 1,000 small dams and reservoirs, and over 300 water monitoring stations.
“We want to transform the rainwater which is today lost in the rivers and sea into reserves of hope, production and prosperity”, said Chapo.
The programme also envisages interventions in more than 12,000 schools and hundreds of health units, in an attempt to reduce the social impacts of the water crisis.
Chapo’s speech also stressed the weight of water shortages on women and children, particularly in the rural areas.
“Thousands of children still walk long distances to fetch water. When a child spends hours looking for water, the country is losing time, productivity and its future”, he said.
The President recognised that the water sector needs “stronger, more efficient and more transparent institutions”, and greater capacity to mobilise private investment and international financing.
The launch of PROÁguas is also happening at a time when Mozambique is trying to place water security as a national and regional strategic priority, coinciding with the African Union’s declaration of 2026 as the African Year of Water and Sanitation. (MT)
