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Luanda Without Water For Past Week

Story Filed: Thursday, March 16, 2000 9:08 PM EST

Johannesburg (UN Integrated Regional Information Network, March 16, 2000) - Residents of the Angolan capital Luanda have been without running water since Tuesday last week following a cut to the city's water mains.

Maria Flynn, Information Officer for WFP, told IRIN on Wednesday the authorities expected to have the system up and running again on Friday. "We are very concerned about the school children and those in nursing homes around the city who are beneficiaries of our feeding programme," Flynn said. "If you don't have sufficient running water, it is difficult to cooked meals."

People in Luanda said temperatures at this time of year are high and that many were suffering as a result of the cut which came without warning. "We are used to living in a city where there are always one or two neighbourhoods without running water at any given time," said one resident. "But now all of us just having to cope using buckets and bottles of water for all our needs."

Government officials quoted by the official media blamed technical problems, and said they expected the water to return by Friday.

This item is delivered by the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit (e- mail: irin@ocha.unon.org; fax: +254 2 622129; Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN), but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.

via Africa News Online. Copyright ) 2000 UN Integrated Regional Information Network. Distributed

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