Nyasa Times understands that Mozambique is not showing interest to bankroll the project which would create a new water transport corridor linking Malawi to the Indian Ocean and would also serve Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania as well as Zimbabwe, Burundi and Rwanda.
The President [Mutharika] is scheduled to depart for Mozambique on Monday to discuss with his Mozambique counterpart the problem affecting the Shire-Zambezi waterway, a senior official in foreign affairs ministry told Nyasa Times.
Mozambique government has been coy commit itself before a conclusive feasibility study has been done.
Transport and communications minister Antonio Munguambe is on record saying Mozambique only signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) on April 25 2007 to help facilitate the mobilization of resources to conduct the feasibility study.
He said there is a need to know the projects sustainability and to consider its financial, geographical and social aspects to see whether it will be beneficial to the people of the concerned countries.
The waterway the technicolour dream of Mutharika 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.
At the moment, Malawis traditional ports are Beira, which is located about 800 kilometers away, and Nacala, which is 900 kilometers away. The country also depends on the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, which is about 1,200 kilometers away.
Private investors and companies have expressed interest in partnering development fund investors and Comesa allocated $500,000 for a hydrographic survey examining the possible conversion of the existing Shire-Zambezi waterway so it can carry cargo barges, expanding Nsanje and modernising the Chinde seaports.
Malawi, which is to be the main beneficiary of the proposed $6-billion ShireZambezi waterway project, procured a vessel to be used in feasibility studies for the project.
The government bought the vessel from Malawi Lake Services, a local firm that operates as a water transport services provider on Lake Malawi.
Malawi government will partly finance the study and is seeking funding from its cooperating partners, such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the European Union, the World Bank, and the government of Japan.
A prelim- inary study that was conducted by German firm Hydroplan Ingenieur spelt out several hitches that should be addressed by the comprehensive feasibility study, which will include hydrographic, technical and economic feasibility studies, as well as social- and environmental-impact assessment studies.
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