A Chinese civil engineering company is to build a water extraction and treatment project in Angola's central province of Bie to improve water supply in that region, a government official said in Luanda on Monday.

Gomes Silva, Angola's national director for waters, told reporters that the project will be carried out by the Sino Hydro Corporation Ltd.

"The project is scheduled for completion in 18 months," he said, adding that "it will then produce 300 cubic meters of drinking water per day, enough to satisfy the needs of city inhabitants."

At the project awarding ceremony at the weekend in the provincial capital Kuito, Bie Province Governor Jose Amaro Tati said he was satisfied with the initiative of the water treatment project by the government with an investment of 20 million U.S. dollars.

Tati also seized the opportunity to instruct the authorities of Kuito to curb the disorderly construction along the banks of the four rivers that surround the city so as not to pollute the water.

When the 27-year civil war ended in Angola in 2002 which left one million people dead and 4 million people displaced, infrastructures in the country including water supply facilities, electricity, roads, among others, were almost completely destroyed.

Source: Xinhua