By Alex Haji
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The ministry of Transport and Public Works is working tirelessly to revive the country’s water and rail transport system in a bid to utilise the infrastructure that was already invested upon and has been idle for over a decade.
During the one party system, government of Malawi invested heavily in water and rail transport infrastructure. The inception of multiparty democracy brought in a new dimension to the transport and haulage sector with preference being roads.
“Water combined with rail transport can help us reduce the cost of fuel as its haulage will be by ship and train which are marginally operated at very low cost. We already have the facilities and we just need a little investment and they will be up and running in no time,” said Nancy Chaola Mdooko, Deputy Minister of Transport and Public Works.
The Tonse administration is looking at reviving the two transport systems that are already connected and just require a bit of investment in rehabilitating some of its facilities especially the hub which is Chipoka port which connects the water to rail.
“We already have the infrastructure in place, Chipoka port has a rail line that connect it to Lilongwe – Mchinji, Liwonde, Limbe and as far as port of Beira in Mozambique. The rail network, part of it has already been rehabilitated and some parts are also being renovated, we have plans of repairing the whole network and connecting with Zambia and Mozambique,” explainsMdooko.
Malawi government commissioned its lake shipping services to Malawi Shipping Company in 2010 followed by the concessioning of ports to the Malawi Lake Ports Company. The objective was basically to improve the efficiency of water transport by allowing the operators to maximise shipping business on Lake Malawi. The two companies originated from Malawi Lake Services which was fully state under Malawi Railways.
“In the early days, water transport strive and formed part of the northern corridor where a good percentage of cargo was meant to be moved by water between Chilumba and Chipoka ports connecting with rail to Lilongwe and Blantyre. Implementation of the water transport part of the corridor faced problems because the then government allowed cargo to move all the way to Lilongwe and Blantyre by road without sparing a share of it for water transport. Water transport has therefore not been able to compete with road transport despite all the advantages it offers,” narrates Mdooko.
The country has four established ports, Chilumba in Karonga, Nkhata-bay, Chipoka in Salima and Monkey-bay in Mangochi. Currently a fourth port in under construction in Likoma. Chilumba port is generally in good condition in terms of water levels as it is able to accommodate all vessels however, with the recent unprecedented low water levels, the port requires dredging. Nkhatabay remains the busiest of all ports because it serves Likoma and Chizumulu islands yet it’s the poorest port in terms of facilities. It has a temporary jetty that replace the sunken floating jetty.
Chipoka port is regarded as the main shipping port because of its link with a rail line and its central location, it was designed to handle containerised cargo, fuel cargo, dry bulb and passengers just like Chilumba port. Monkey-bay port is generally a dockyard where all ships are repaired and built despite offering passenger service as a starting point of the MV Ilala and other passenger ships.
According to Director of Marine Services in the ministry, Captain John Mhango, “Lake Malawi provides the opportunity of facilitating good water transport because of its stretch right from the north where it forms a boarder with Tanzania extending all the way to Mangochi. Along its borders with Tanzania and Mozambique, there are points of ships call that present the opportunity for cross border trade and these are Kiwira, Itungi and Mbamba bay in Tanzania and Metangula in Mozambique.”
Mhango explains that Kiwira and Itungi are not Malawi’s choice as points of call because of Chilumba port that lies along the Northern Corridor while Mbamba bay which is located to the east of Nkhata-bay lies along the undeveloped Mtwara Corridor. Mtwarais the Tanzanian port situated far south of Dar el Salaam and mainly serves the Mbeya region hence the opportunity that it can serve Malawi and Zambia without congestion and shipping through it would reduce distance by 400km when compared to Dar el Salaam port.
Malawi has 6 vessels to its inventory, MvIlala, MvMtendere, MvKatundu, MvKaronga, MvUfulu and Vipya tug and pontoom which ply the waters on the beautiful lake.
