Tanzania mtwara development corridior preliminary

The Mtwara Development Project is a major infrastructure development project involving southern

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

, northern

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, eastern

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

and Eastern

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

. The goal of this project is to provide road, rail and waterway access from the surrounding region to the Port of Mtwara. 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. A road and rail link is to be built from the port of Mtwara to

Mbamba Bay Mbamba Bay is a town in western Tanzania, lying on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi/Lake Nyasa. Port Mbamba Bay has an indentation in the otherwise straight profile of the lake and may be a potential port. Transport In October 2007, it was ...

Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

to link Malawi to the corridor and further road links into Mozambique will facilitate access to northern Mozambique.

History

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 Port of Dar es Salaam is the principal port serving Tanzania. The port is one of three ocean ports in the country and handles over 90% of the country's cargo traffic. According to the International Association of Ports and Harbors, it is the fo ...

. The last time the region saw a major infrastructure investment was during the colonial times. The

Mtwara port The Mtwara Port was built during the British Colonial times in the city of Mtwara in southern Tanzania. The harbor at the Port of Mtwara was deepened during the colonial times by the British in 1948-1954, and a railway line was built connecting th ...

and a minor railway link was developed during the British colonial times as part of the failed

Tanganyika groundnut scheme The Tanganyika groundnut scheme, or East Africa groundnut scheme, was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African trust territory Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) with peanuts. Launched in the aftermath of Worl ...

. 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. In late 2004 the leaders of the four participating countries;

Benjamin Mkapa Benjamin William Mkapa (12 November 193824 July 2020) was the third president of Tanzania, in office from 1995 to 2005. He was Chairman of the Revolutionary State Political Party (Chama Cha Mapinduzi, CCM). Early life Mkapa was born in Lupaso, ...

(Tanzania),

Joaquim Chissano Joaquim Alberto Chissano (born 22 October 1939) is a politician who served as the second President of Mozambique, from 1986 to 2005. He is credited with transforming the war-torn country of Mozambique into one of the most successful African demo ...

(Mozambique),

Bingu wa Mutharika Bingu wa Mutharika (; born Brightson Webster Ryson Thom; 24 February 1934 – 5 April 2012) was a Malawian politician and economist who was President of Malawi from May 2004 until his death in April 2012. He was also President of the Democ ...

(Malawi) and

Levy Mwanawasa Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (3 September 1948 – 19 August 2008) was the third president of Zambia. He served as president from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. Mwanawasa is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the corrupti ...

(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 mining sector. The development project involved building and rehabilitating over of roads and involved the construction of

Unity Bridge Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a ...

. Furthermore, the ports of Mtwara and Mbamba Bay were to be upgraded to handle high volumes of cargo.

2016

To help boost business in the area the

Tanzania Ports Authority Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) is a parastatal public corporation acting under the aegis of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, that has the responsibility "to manage and operate" the ocean ports and lake ports of the country of Tanzan ...

embarked on a project to introduce three new ships into

. The authority will buy 2 cargo ships each with a capacity of 1,000 tonnes and one passenger ferry.

Road and rail links

Road

Barabara Tanzania Ruvuma wakati wa mvua Tamino 2012

An road from the port of Mtwara to Songea has a sealed surface already. The onward route through to Mbamba Bay via Mbinga is not all sealed. Furthermore, another road from the Mtwara-Songea highway branches off to the Ruvuma River at the Mozambique border. At the border the

Unity bridge Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a ...

was completed in 2010 and Mozambique is to construct a road from Negomano to

Mueda Mueda is the largest town of the Makonde Plateau in northeastern Mozambique. It is the capital of the Mueda District in Cabo Delgado Province. It is the center of the culture of the Makondes, and the production of their ebony sculptures. Geog ...

connecting the corridor to Mozambique's highway 246.

Railway construction

With the high amounts of mineral deposits found in the south along the corridor the

Government of Tanzania The politics of Tanzania takes place in a framework of a unitary presidential democratic republic, whereby the President of Tanzania is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the ...

deemed the construction of a railway to be economically feasible. The railway line is to span from Mtwara port to Mbamba Bay through Mchuchuma and Liganga areas. The railway line is to cost TSh 8.4 trillion and the Government of Tanzania is looking to implement the project under a Public and Private Partnership (PPP). The railway line will complement all the coal and iron mining operations in

Mchuchuma Mchuchuma in south western Tanzania near Ludewa off the northern tip of Lake Nyasa, is the site of major coal deposits. There is also a thermal power station costing$612m. Recent studies indicate that Mchuchuma/ Ketewaka coal deposits should be c ...

and

Liganga Liganga is a site in Njombe Region, Tanzania where iron ore is mined in Liganga mine. It is also rich in both vanadium and titanium. The deposits are near Lake Malawi in the south of the country. See also * Railway stations in Tanzania A ...

and make Tanzanian coal and iron exports more attractive internationally.

Unity Bridge

The Unity Bridge spans across the Ruvuma river from Tanzania to Mozambique. It was a dream of the two former presidents of the country

Julius Nyerere Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, aft ...

of Tanzania and

Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's ...

of Mozambique. Plans for the bridge were inked in 2005 and it was completed five years later in 2010. A border post was constructed in

Negomano Negomano or Ngomano is a village in northern Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado Province. It is located on the border with Tanzania on the confluence of the Ruvuma River and the Lugenda River. Negomano was the scene of fierce battle between the German Ar ...

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 The Unity Bridge 2 is an international bridge and border crossing between Kivikoni, Songea Rural District in Tanzania and Lupilichi in Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambik ...

south of

Songea Songea is the capital of Ruvuma Region in southwestern Tanzania. It is located along the A19 road. The city has a population of approximately 203,309, and it is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Songea. Between 1905 and 1907, the cit ...

. The bridge would connect Kivikoni in the

Songea Rural district Songea Rural District is one of five districts in the Ruvuma Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by the Morogoro Region, to the east by the Namtumbo District, to the south by the Songea Urban District, to the west by the Mbinga Distric ...

, to

Lupilichi Lupilichi is a village in Niassa Province in northwestern Mozambique. It is located approximately 25 kilometres south of the border with Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzan ...

, Mozambique.

Port infrastructure

Mtwara Port

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 the

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

-based firm Alistar Free Ports Limited. Over have been set for an industrial zone and over have been set for oil/gas activities.

Lake Nyasa Ports

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 Nkhata Bay or just Nkhata is the capital of the Nkhata Bay District in Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi (formerly Lake Nyasa), east of Mzuzu, and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Nkhata Bay was 14,274 accordin ...

in Malawi. The project will also involve purchasing high capacity ferries to move cargo and passengers between the terminals.

Economy

Mining operations

Exploration works in

have

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. The Liganga Mines are also known to be rich in

Vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( pas ...

and

Titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

and its plausibility is still being explored. 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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

) has been conducting coal mining operations in the region and have already started to sell the coal domestically. In 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 The Mtwara Port was built during the British Colonial times in the city of Mtwara in southern Tanzania. The harbor at the Port of Mtwara was deepened during the colonial times by the British in 1948-1954, and a railway line was built connecting th ...

. The Mchuchuma coal projects are set to begin operations in 2016 as per the Ministry for Trade and Industry. The TSh 5 trillion is project under the Tanzania China International Mineral Resources Ltd (TCIMRL), a joint venture between the National Development Corporation (NDC) and the Chinese firm Sichuan Hongda Group. It is categorized as the largest single industrial investment since Tanzania was awarded its independence in 1961. The project is expected to create 32,000 direct jobs and will bring Tanzania to being the third largest producer of iron in Africa.

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 Mtwara (Portuguese: ''Montewara'') is the capital city of Mtwara Region in southeastern Tanzania. In the 1940s, it was planned and constructed as the export facility for the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme, but was somewhat neglected when t ...

will need reliable energy supply. To power the Coal and Iron operations the state energy firm

TANESCO The Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) is a Tanzanian parastatal organisation established in 1964. It is wholly owned by the government of Tanzania. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals regulates the operations of TANESCO. Its bu ...

plans to construct a 600MW

coal fired power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

of which 250MW will be used by the Iron industry and the remaining 350MW will be fed into the national grid. The recent discoveries of

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

in the region will facilitate another 600MW gas fired power plant in

to feed to the nearby region and into the national grid. The power plant project will also involve the extension of transmission lines from

to ensure the entire southern region is connected to the grid. The kick off of these 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.

Environmental concerns

The southern part of Tanzania and northern Mozambique are home to vast natural reserves such as the

Selous Game Reserve The Selous Game Reserve, now renamed Nyerere National Park, is a protected area in southern Tanzania. It covers a total area of and has additional buffer zones. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to its wildlife diversity ...

and the

Niassa Reserve Niassa Reserve is a nature reserve in Cabo Delgado Province and Niassa Province, Mozambique. Covering over , it is the largest protected area in the country. The reserve is part of the Trans-Frontier Conservation Area and links to the Tanzanian ...

. The border of Tanzania and Mozambique is drawn by the

Ruvuma River Ruvuma River, formerly also known as the Rovuma River, is a river in the African Great Lakes region. During the greater part of its course, it forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique (in Mozambique known as ''Rio Rovuma''). The river is ...

and the regions around it has been named the Great Ruvuma Wilderness (GROW) by the wildlife community. The wildness is the last great wilderness of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

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

in recent years has increased the amount of

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a pro ...

in the region. The

Niassa reserve Niassa Reserve is a nature reserve in Cabo Delgado Province and Niassa Province, Mozambique. Covering over , it is the largest protected area in the country. The reserve is part of the Trans-Frontier Conservation Area and links to the Tanzanian ...

where the Unity bridge goes through is home to 43% of Mozambique's

elephants Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae and ...

and in the past three years it has been estimated that 2/3 of the elephants have been lost. The road rehabilitation projects have also caused various unplanned settlements to spring up, interfering with the wildlife's natural movement patterns.

References

External links

{{Ports in Tanzania Economy of Tanzania East Africa Infrastructure in Tanzania Economic development programs Development in Africa