Angola secures €538 million to expand Luanda’s water supply – Smart Water Magazine

The financing was arranged by Standard Chartered, which acted as export credit agency coordinator, structuring bank, sole bookrunner and mandated lead arranger. It was supported by the French state through Bpifrance Assurance Export, along with refinancing support from the French public development bank Sfil. The project is being implemented for Empresa Pública de Águas de Luanda (EPAL), under Angola’s Ministry of Energy and Water, with Opaia Group taking part through its construction arm, OPAIA Construction, within a wider consortium that also includes Casais Construction, CNT Bau and GAUFF Engineering.

The financing comes against a broader infrastructure deficit in water and sanitation in Angola

Quilonga Grande is being developed to produce and transmit up to 518,000 cubic metres of treated water per day, drawing on the Kwanza River and supported by treatment facilities, reservoirs and multiple distribution centres. According to Angola’s Ministry of Energy and Water, the project has reached around 55 per cent physical completion and is expected to begin supplying water by the end of 2026, providing approximately 350,000 new household connections across municipalities including Cacuaco, Viana, Mulenvos, Calumbo, Cabiri, Sequele, Bom Jesus and Catete.

The financing comes against a broader infrastructure deficit in water and sanitation in Angola. World Bank data show that access to basic drinking water in the country improved between 2000 and 2022, reaching around 58 per cent of the population by 2022, though it continued to lag behind sub-Saharan African and lower middle-income averages, with millions of urban residents still lacking access to improved water.

The project is also expected to generate more than 1,500 direct construction jobs, according to the financing announcement, with government data indicating that hundreds of Angolan workers have already been employed during construction. The Ministry of Energy and Water has said further distribution extensions will still be needed in rapidly growing neighbourhoods, including Zango, Caop, Mulenvos and Calumbo, and that EPAL has been instructed to raise output from existing facilities while larger projects such as Quilonga Grande are completed.