Mtwara Development Corridor

Map of planned infrastructure

The Mtwara Development Project is a major infrastructure development project involving southern Tanzania, Northern Mozambique, Eastern Malawi and Eastern Zambia. The goal of this project is to provide road, rail and waterway access from the surrounding region to the Port of Mtwara.[1] The region and the corridor has been neglected by the respective governments for over 40 years and the recent discovery of oil, gas and various minerals has kick started the development of the project.[2] A road and rail link is to be built from the port of Mtwara to Mbamba bay on Lake Nyasa to link Malawi to the corridor and further road links into Mozambique will facilitate access to northern Mozambique.[3]

History

Construction of new road towards the port of Mtwara

The talks of the project began during the early 2000s where leaders of the 4 SADC community members met to create a shorter/alternative path for cargo into the region from the Dar es salaam port. The last time the region saw a major infrastructure investment was during the colonial times. The Mtwara port and a minor railway link was developed during the British colonial times as part of the failed Tanganyika groundnut scheme.[4] Post colonial times the south of Tanzania had seen very little development and was often neglected in infrastructure projects as the region brought very little revenue to the coffers.[5] Similar fate was seen by Northern Mozambique due to the proximity from the capital in the south Maputo and the Mozambique civil war, the region saw very little development.

In late 2004 the leaders of the 4 participating countries; Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania), Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique), Bingu wa Mutharika (Malawi) and Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia) managed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to make the Mtwara Development Corridor a reality. The aim of the corridor was to create competitive transport links for the region to help boost the informal and formal industry. The project was to help regional integration to facilitate growth in agriculture, fisheries, tourism and the minning sector. The development project involved building and rehabilitating over 800 km of roads and involved the construction of Unity Bridge. Furthermore the ports of Mtwara and Mbamba Bay were to be upgraded to handle high volumes of cargo.[6]

Road and Rail Link

Road Rehabilitation

Current State of Roads in Ruvuma, 2012

Mtwara and Songea are the biggest towns in southern Tanzania. A 804 km road is to be built from the port of Mtwara to Songea extending through to Mbamba Bay. The road section between Mangaka-Tunduru has never been paved in history and so the 136 km section is to be constructed entirely from scratch. Furthermore another road from the Mtwara-Songea highway is to branch off to Negomane at the Mozambique border. At the border the Unity bridge was completed in 2010 and Mozambique is to construct a 175 km road from Negomane to Mueda connecting the corridor to Mozambique’s highway 246.[7] With the completion of this road this provides a shorter cape-cairo driving route.

Rail Construction

With the high amounts of mineral deposits found in the south along the corridor the Government of Tanzania deemed the construction of a railway to be economically feasible. The railway line is to span 860 km from Mtwara port to Mbamba bay through Mchuchuma region. The railway line is to cost TZS 2.4 trillion shillings and was recently awarded to a Chinese contractor via the state owned Rail Asset Holding Company Ltd (RAHCO). The railway line will complement all the coal and iron mining operations in Mchuchuma and Liganga and make Tanzanian coal and iron exports more attractive internationally.[2]

Unity Bridge

Unity Bridge
Main article: Unity Bridge

The Unity Bridge is bridge that spans across the ruvuma river from Tanzania to Mozambique. The Bridge was a dream of the two formers presidents of the country Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Samora Machel of Mozambique. Plans for the bridge were inked in 2005 and was completed 5 years later in 2010. A border post was constructed in Negomano and is the first bridge to span between the two countries. The Bridge was crucial to the Mtwara Development Corridor project as it connected the two major highways in the region and was the key to cross border trade between the countries. The bridge also provides a road link between Mtwara port and Malawi. Plans are underway to create a second bridge, Unity Bridge 2 180 km south of Songea.The bridge would connect Kivikoni in the Songea Rural district, to Lupilichi, Mozambique.[8]

Port Infrastructure

Mtwara Port

Main article: Mtwara Port

The Mtwara port is another major key to the success of the development corridor. Currently the port has weak infrastructure and can handle upto 400,000 per annum of conventional cargo. The government plans to spend over $200 million in upgrading the port to international standards and the hope to develop a port to handle unto 28 million tonnes per year. The recent discovery of oil/gas in the region has fast tracked the development corridor project and more importantly the port.[9] Furthermore, the port will be accompanied with an Export processing zone to help fast track the regional economy and bring in revenue for the port. The special zone saw an investment of over $700,000 in December 2015 from a Dar-es-Salaam based firm Alistar free ports limited. Over 100 hectares have been set for an industrial zone and over 400 hectares have been set for oil/gas activities.[10]

Lake Nyasa Ports

Nkhata Bay in Malawi in 1998

With the development of the Road and Rail links the transport corridor can provide an alternative route for goods moving in and out of Malawi. The development plan involves upgrading both Mbamba Bay in Tanzania and Nkhata Bay in Malawi.[11] The project will also involve purchasing high capacity ferries to move Cargo and passengers between the terminals.[12] Nkhata bay already provides an entry point for goods into Malawi through Monkey Bay on the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika. If the project is conducted as planned the alternative entry point for Malawi bound cargo may be preferred over the Port of Dar es Salaam due to decrease in distance and the increasing inefficiencies of the port.

Economy

Mining Operations

Linganga Iron Mountains

Exploration works in Mchuchuma have Liganga concluded that there is over 364 million tonnes of coal and 219 million tonnes of iron ore deposits at the twin projects. These have one of the largest estimates of iron ore deposits in the country and the mines are estimated to operate well over 100 years and will continue to foster and develop the regional economy.[13] The Liganga Mines are also known to be rich in Vanadium and Titanium and its plausibility is still being explored.[14]

Mining operations in the region especially with coal have already kicked off, TANCOAL Energy Limited (a joint venture of NDC and Intra Energy Corporation of Australia) has been conducting coal mining operations in the region and have already started to sell the coal domestically. In the year 2014/2015 the company managed to extract over 300,000 tonnes of coal and sells most of its coal locally to the domestic cement manufacturers. The construction of the rail link will help export the coal through the Mtwara Port.[15]

The Mchuchuma coal projects are set to begin operations in 2016 as per the Ministry for Trade and Industry. The TZS 5 trillion is project under the Tanzania China International Mineral Resources Ltd (TCIMRL); which is a joint venture between the National Development Corporation (NDC) and Chinese firm - Sichuan Hongda Group. It is categorized as the largest single industrial investment since Tanzania got independence. The project is expected to create 32,000 direct jobs and will bring Tanzania to the third largest producer of Iron in Africa.[15]

Energy Generation

The Mtwara corridor is currently disconnected from the national grid and energy in the region is dependent on outlying thermal power plants. The growing mining operations and the expansion of industry in Mtwara will need reliable energy supply. To power the Coal and Iron operations the state energy firm TANESCO plans to construct a 600MW coal fired power plant of which 250MW will be used by the Iron industry and the remaining 350MW will be fed into the national grid.[15] Furthermore, the recent discoveries of Gas in the region will facilitate another 600MW gas fired power plant in Mtwara to feed to the nearby region and into the national grid. The power plant project will also involve the extension of transmission lines from Mtwara to Songea to ensure the entire southern region is connected to the grid.[16] The kick off, of the projects will bring a massive surplus in energy and in the future, the southern region governments plan to extend the transmission lines into Mozambique and Malawi.[17]

Environmental Concerns

The southern part of Tanzania and northern Mozambique is home to vast natural reserves such as the Selous Game Reserve and the Niassa Reserve. The border of Tanzania and Mozambique is drawn by the Ruvuma River and the regions around it has been named the Great Rovuma Wilderness (GROW) by the wildlife community. The wildness is the last great wilderness of Africa and is home to various important species of large mammals and marine life. Due to large amounts of poverty and lack of development in the area the region's population relies on the natural habitat for survival. The construction of the infrastructure projects have led to various abuses of the natural environment. The construction of the new roads and the Unity Bridge in the recent years has increased the amount of illegal logging in the region.[18] The Niassa reserve where the Unity bridge goes through is home to 43% of Mozambique's elephants and in the past 3 years it has been estimated that 2/3 of the elephants have been lost.[19] The road rehabilitation projects have also caused various unplanned settlements to spring up, interfering with the wildlife's natural movement patterns.[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Mtwara Development Corridor Project, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia". aurecongroup. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Tanzania: A Railway Line in the South - 40 Years After Tazara". allAfrica.com. Allafrica. Retrieved 2015-12-26.
  3. ↑ Masato, Masato (11 September 2012). "Mtwara Set to Become Economic Powerhouse". Retrieved 26 December 2015 – via AllAfrica.
  4. ↑ "Britain Abandons the Groundnuts Scheme | History Today". www.historytoday.com. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  5. ↑ "Tanzania: A Railway Line in the South - 40 Years After Tazara". allAfrica.com. AllAfrica. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  6. ↑ "Four countries, one people, one development corridor: Mtwara". Southern African Research and Development center. Southern African News Features. January 2005. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Mtwara Development Corridor Study-(Mueda Negomano Road project) (2012-7)". www.nepad-ippf.org. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  8. ↑ "Prefeasibility And Environmental Baseline Study For The Ruvuma River Interface" (PDF). selous-niassa-corridor.org. Ministry of Trade and Industry (South Africa). 21 August 2005. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  9. ↑ "Mtwara port set for major upgrade". www.theeastafrican.co.ke. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  10. ↑ "Tanzania: Dar Firm Injects Sh1.5 Billion in Mtwara's Free Port Zone". allAfrica.com. Allafrica. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  11. ↑ KITOMARY. "Magufuli with long list of promises". www.ippmedia.com. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  12. ↑ "Mtwara Port and Economic Development Zone" (PDF). ecfa.or.jp. Engineering and Consulting Firms Japan. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  13. ↑ "Mchuchuma, Liganga Mines to Last 100 Years". 5 July 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015 – via AllAfrica.
  14. ↑ "Liganga".
  15. 1 2 3 "Tanzania: Mchuchuma Coal Mine for Takeoff". allAfrica.com. Allafrica. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  16. ↑ "Mtwara 600 MW gas power plant transmission to cost USD 1.3 billion". www.ippmedia.com. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  17. ↑ "CURRENT PLANS FOR REGIONAL TRANSMISSION REINFORCEMENTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA" (PDF). International Renewable Energy Agency. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  18. 1 2 "WWF Tanzania: Our Solutions". wwf.panda.org. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  19. ↑ "Vets collar Mozambique elephants in Niassa National Reserve". Times LIVE. Retrieved 2015-12-27.

External links

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