Water Stone

Its rehabilitation constitutes one of the pillars for the relaunch of the jewelry industry in the province of Kwanza-Sul and the filling of natural carbonated medicinal water, with unique characteristics in Angola and the world.

Located 500 meters from the bank of the Cubal River, the place is called “Unchila Wonjamba”, which in Portuguese means “Elephant's Tail”.
The industrial and tourist center of Pedra de Água has a natural carbonated water spring in the area of ​​Bamba and as it runs it turns into stone, gathering leaves and tree branches.

And so, from the thermal water spring a beautiful stone is formed and only nature knows what the size and end of the process will be. Water Stone is indicated for curing many illnesses and has digestive characteristics.

The Portuguese João António Veiga built a structure in 1956 to fill medicinal water from the spring. The Pedra de Água brand was highly consumed in Angola and already had customers abroad. Today the factory and other structures built at the time are in rubble.
The current governor of Catanda, Soba Filipe Correia, worked at the Pedra de Água factory for many years until its closure in 1980, due to the war.
According to chief Filipe Correia, the industrial and tourist center of Pedra de Água contributed to the social and economic development of the municipality of Seles.

In addition to filling the “Pedra da Água” there was a jewelry industry on site. The workshop was built in 1971 and its operation encouraged the exploration of precious and semi-precious stones in the region, which at the time generated 350 jobs.
“When the Pedra de Água center was operating, we all had support with food, soap, clothing, footwear and we lacked nothing. Today people have to go to the municipal headquarters to get these products, covering 40 kilometers on foot”, said the old man.

The 63-year-old soba remembers the good times he had at that time, highlighting the supply of electricity through the mini-hydro plant that the center had available and which allowed various services to be carried out for the benefit of the region's inhabitants. “We lived well here, even our wives didn’t make the effort to prepare the cornmeal because with the light from the mini-hydro we had the grinding machines,” he said.

Lack of investors

The rehabilitation of the center, according to the municipal administrator of Seles, Rui Feliciano Miguel, is one of the municipality's priorities, but the failure to implement the intentions of the businesspeople who proposed to invest is postponing the desires of the authorities and the population.
To implement the plan for the rehabilitation and exploitation of the center's resources, the Municipal Administration of Seles intends to hold a public tender to identify potential investors.
The administrator of Seles, Rui Feliciano Miguel, revealed to Jornal de Angola that to encourage potential investors, his executive is committed to repairing the road that gives access to the site, which he considered “a task that must count on the collaboration of the business class of the province of Kwanza-sul, the municipality and the country in general”, saying that the center of Pedra de Água is an international reference.
The municipality of Seles has nine tourist centers, “Nduva”, “Pedra de Água”, “Mundo Wkua”, “Local dos Hipopótamos”, “Camira”, “Piscina Municipal”, “Quedas do rio Luai”, “Caxita” and “Nduinguiri Hill”.

Source: http://jornaldeangola.sapo.ao By: Casimiro José| Sumbe On: January 31, 2010