afrol News, 17 June - José Maria Neves, Prime Minister of Cape Verde, yesterday made a promise to his countrymen, saying that all Cape Verdeans "will have access to water and electricity" in less than ten years. This would be one of the principal objectives of his government.

Access to water and electricity has barely increased since the responsible state utility was privatised in a process that has seen large price increases for these basic services. Access to clean water is still fairly low on the dry Cape Verdean archipelago, especially outside the capital, Praia.

Now, however, work would be intensified to assure water and electricity access to every household. The Cape Verdean Prime Minister made these declarations during an arrangement celebrating the African Children's Day, which was held yesterday and in relation with the stated "embracement of my government with children in the country's kindergartens," according to Prime Minister Neves.

José Maria Neves, in addition to promising water and electricity to all Cape Verdeans, went further in launching two more promises on the development of his country.

Firstly, Mr Neves said his government also would see to that, within no more than five years, all schools on the archipelago would have access to at least one computer.

Mr Neves explained that, referring to this plan, his government was to "develop a programme so that, five years from now, each and every school and every teacher will have at least one computer that will permit giving infants, children and youth access to information."

Finally, the last promise of the Cape Verdean Prime Minister referred to the start of a programme termed "Operation Hope", through which his government aims at rehabilitating at least 20,000 social residences during the next few years.

During his participation at the celebration of children's day, Prime Minister Neves emphasised that children represented the future of Cape Verde. Therefore, these three new social development schemes were directed towards Cape Verde's children, and therefore they had been announced on children's day to pay tribute to the coming generation.

- With these three promises, I want to pay a firm tribute to the children of Cape Verde, which represent our future, said Mr Neves. "The investments of today are a guarantee to the future of these children," the Prime Minister added.

By staff writers

© afrol News

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