A subsidiary of state-owned Power Construction Corp. of China (PowerChina) is building a water supply system to ease the shortage in the northern Mozambican city of Pemba, PowerChina says.

The subsidiary, Sinohydro Bureau 11Co. Ltd, is laying 172 km of mains pipes, building three tanks with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres each and a water tower with a capacity of 250 cubic metres, and is rehabilitating the present water supply system, according to a written statement issued by PowerChina on Wednesday.

The work began in August and is due to take 15 months, PowerChina says.

Its statement quotes a senior official in the surrounding province of Cabo Delgado, António Njanje Taimo Supeia, as saying after inspecting the progress of the work that the new system will improve the lives of the people of Pemba by supplying more of them with potable water.