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LUANDA’S
EMBRACE:
THE BENGO REGION
Bengo province and its contiguous areas
completely embrace urban Luanda. Universo
looks at the region’s role in relation to the capital
and its impressive development prospects
A
ll major growing cities need
surrounding wide open spaces
not just for future expansion but
also as a contrasting, clean-air
escape for their inhabitants to enjoy in their
leisure time. Bengo province and its former
municipalities Icolo e Bengo and Kissama*
provide the teeming capital Luanda
with the relief of greenery and expansive
beaches city dwellers often crave.
The importance any city’s adjacent
recreation area plays in the physical and
mental wellbeing of its inhabitants cannot
be underestimated. The quality of life for
the 10 million people living in the largely
treeless Brazilian mega-city of São Paulo is
much improved by the access to pristine
beaches and mountainous rainforest
within an hour’s drive.
Life, too, for the inhabitants of England’s
grey, formerly smoky industrial capital
Manchester, would have been intolerable
without the easy journey to the clean air on
the surrounding moorland hills.
Bottlenecks uncorked
Driving out of Luanda in any direction
towards the Bengo region has often been
a time-consuming affair owing to the city’s
notorious traffic jams. These bottlenecks
are gradually being cleared, thanks to the
20 SONANGOL UNIVERSO DECEMBER 2012 21
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Footnote
* Luanda province formally absorbed Icolo e
Bengo and Kissama in February “to address
the need to ensure greater efficiency in
the organisation and functioning of
institutions and services in the face of
urban growth”.
PROVINCE