Rebuilding bridges to reunite the country
LUANDA, 22 October (IRIN) - As new bridges are laid in Angola,
replacing
those broken or blown up during the war, previously isolated
communities
are slowly being opened up.
The quickly-built military bridges are not only a short-term solution
to
allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, they also open the door to
trade
and long-term development in many rural areas.
The bridge over the Quissafo river, 65 km north of N'dalatando, the
provincial capital of Cuanza Norte, was blown up during the 1980s.
Driving
between N'dalatando and the provincial capital of Uige further to the
north required a detour through the bush and the use of a small,
temporary
bridge - a route that was only passable during the dry season.
The new bridge and road will provide tens of thousands of people with
access to World Food Programme (WFP) aid, and the markets in
N'dalatando.
"The area has recently been made available to returnees. We need the
bridge to get through during the rainy season - without it, people
would
be without food for between three and six months," Uladip Onayemi,
WFP's
base manager in N'dalatando told IRIN.
The Quissafo river bridge is the last of nine key bridges around the
country to be built by the Swedish Rescue Service Agency (SRSA) on
behalf
of WFP.
The United Nations is to appeal for US$254 million to help Angola recover from
its decades of civil war.
JOHANNESBURG, 17 October (IRIN) - UN Development Programme (UNDP) acting
officer-in-charge, Bernard Ouandji, told IRIN on Friday that the consolidated appeal, to assist Angola's
transition from the current humanitarian emergency to recovery in 2004, would be launched in
mid-November.
"We are trying to promote activities for recovery, such as the distribution of agricultural kits to farmers
and the population, so that they can resume farming operations and a normal sustainable life. [In 2004]
humanitarian assistance, as such, should decrease and [the focus] will gradually shift to funding recovery
activities," Ouandji said. "Three million [refugees and internally displaced persons] have been resettled in
their original areas so far. So now they must receive support to resume a normal rural life. Instead of
receiving food, as they have
during the resettlement process, now they should receive support and aid to resume their normal lives,"
Ouandji explained.