Shire-Zambezi waterway link will boost trade

For Malawi, being landlocked clearly presents difficulties to developing international trade, as exports for international markets need to be transported long distances to the nearest seaports, leading to high transportation costs.

One solution might be to build a commercially viable waterway linking the Shire and Zambezi Rivers. This would create a new water transport corridor linking Malawi to the Indian Ocean for bulk exports of agricultural products and minerals, it would also serve neighbouring Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique as well as Zimbabwe, Burundi and Rwanda.

Malawi has proposed this $6bn project to Nepad and prefeaslblllty studies have been undertaken. The new waterway would extend from the inland port of Nsanje on the Shire River in southern Malawi to the Indian Ocean port of chinde in Mozambique, around 240km. Private investors and companies have expressed interest in partnering development fund investors and Comesa has allocated $500,000 for a hydrographie survey examing the possible conversion of the existing Shire-Zambezi waterway so it can carry cargo barges, expanding Nsanje and modernising the Chinde seaports.

The study also considers how the waterway project would Integrate with a multimodal transport network interlinking with new road and rail developments. Preliminary estimates show that the project could reduce dry-bulk transport costs of commodities such as maize, rice, sugar, timber, tea, coffee, bauxite, copper, cobalt and uranium by as much as 60%.

The construction phase and operation of the new waterway would provide employment and reduce damage to the region's road network. It would also lower transport costs of vital imports, such as fuel oils, and stimulate tourism. SW