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Businesses, donors and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) have taken government to task, urging it to base decisions regarding the Shire-Zambezi Waterway project on facts not assumptions.
The stakeholders also grilled government during a symposium meant to sell the project idea and its benefits to donors for their support, traders for their involvement and participation, and NGOs for their input, by asking probing questions.
According to minutes of the meeting made available to Economic Report, a British Department for International Development (DFID) representative also asked government to clearly state the level of private sector support towards the project.
DFID’s question was in view of the fact that pre-feasibility estimates put the project cost at US$6 billion (K840 billion) which the representative felt the Malawi government alone cannot manage to raise.
In response, Director of Transport in the Ministry of Transport and Public Works Victor Lungu explained in an interview that the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) has pledged support while a Mozambican transport company has agreed to transport coal for the project.
Lungu added that other local companies such as Manica and Fargo Limited are already making preparations to participate in the project. He did not elaborate.
A Mr. Chitsime of Transport Logistics also asked what measures government has put in place to deal with transshipment costs which, he exemplified, could arise during the movement of cargo from Beira to Nsanje and further to cities and other towns.
“At each point of loading, where the mode of transport is being changed, there will be costs in form of cargo handling, with probably three transshipment points, would this not affect the cost efficiency of the waterway contrary to its expectations?” quizzed Chitsime.
Chitsime felt that government needs to revisit this logistic issue if the cost reduction is to be attained.
Joseph Mwanamveka of Continental Discount House (CDH) chipped in, asking government to clearly state and identify bankable projects with their specific targets and areas if the financial industry is to consider supporting the initiative.
“As one of the representatives of the banking sector, we will be more interested in the cost benefit analysis that will come out of the feasibility study,” said Mwanamveka.
Ronald Mtonga of Council for Non Government Organisations in Malawi felt that the project leans more heavily on economic issues than social ones.
In response, Lungu said a pre-feasibility study report that was undertaken on the project, recommended that people around the project area need to be relocated. He, however, said the matter is still under discussion.
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