The much publicised Nsanje World
Inland Port has been reduced to a concrete quay with a couple of dozen mooring
posts. Instead of seeing cargo ships docking at Nsanje River Port what one sees
are a few fishermen peddling their wooden dug-out canoes through the shadowy
waters of the mighty Shire River.
Unlike former president, the late
Bingu wa Mutharika who had strong faith that the construction of an inland port
at Nsanje meant linking land-locked Malawi with the Indian Ocean port of
Chinde, 238 kilometres away in neighbouring Mozambique, through the
Shire-Zambezi Waterway project, current crop of leaders in power are almost
silent about the development of port.
Worse still, some cynical politicians
ridicule the project and brand it as a white elephant. From the outbursts of
some leaders in power, it is obvious that they do not want to see the project
succeed. Others even wish the project was abandoned. Their political fear is
that if the project comes to realisation, it is the late Mutharika who will
take credit. That is the ugly face of our partisan politics where projects are
personalised instead of analysing or evaluating them on the basis of their
importance.
While as a nation, we are seemingly
ignoring the project, it is interesting to learn that Southern Africa
Development Community (Sadc) regards it as a priority regional project and more
activities are happening now than before behind the scenes.
According to the Director of
Infrastructure and Services at Sadc Secretariat, Remmy Makumbe the feasibility
study that stands in the way before implementation of the project would take up
to 18 months to the end of 2014 before countries involved, partners and private
sector discuss the infrastructure needs, investment levels and implementation
plan.
As a matter of fact, Sadc has partnered
with the Common Market for East and Central Africa (Comesa) for the feasibility
study and funds have already been pumped into the project.
Despite the initial challenges and
misunderstandings that punctuated the initiation of the project, Malawi,
Mozambique and Zambia need to think seriously about its benefits. For
landlocked Malawi, the obvious benefit of the project is the reduction of the
high transport costs of importing and exporting goods by road and rail via the
Mozambican port city of Beria - a round trip of about 1,200 kilometres. Whether one likes it or not, if successfully
implemented, the project will offer a cheap route to the Indian ocean for
landlocked Malawi and even for Zambia and benefit some parts of Mozambique.
It is our hope that following Sadc’s
observation and update on the Shire-Zambezi waterway, partisan politics will
give way to economic sanity so that as a nation we can still regard the project
as a priority.
As others have recently observed Malawi
desperately needs a capable and developmental state which is capable to
formulate and implement policies and projects that serve the national interest.
The reduction of transport costs by an estimated 50 to 60 percent will benefit
all Malawians and hence it is a mistake to politicise such a long term
beneficial project.
When Shire-Zambezi Waterway is going
to become a reality, it is Malawians who will benefit.
