by Bayano Valy – SANF 05 no 03
Mozambique and Tanzania are neighbouring countries separated physically by the Ruvuma River, without a bridge to span their long, shared history.
That is now being rectified and the two countries have taken further steps towards physically bridging the river that divides (or unites) their people.
The “Unity Bridge”, almost 30 years in conception, could be a reality as early as 2008.
The presidents of Mozambique and Tanzania, Joaquim Chissano and Benjamin Mkapa respectively, met recently in Pemba, capital of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, to sign an agreement of intention for the building the Unity Bridge, a 600-metre, bridge-road link between the two countries, expected to cost US$33 million.
The project includes access roads spanning five kilometres on each side of the bridge.
The signing of the agreement demonstrates the solid political backing that the project enjoys. The first version of the concept was concluded in 1977, and was improved in 1981.
A memorandum of agreement on joint implementation of the project was signed in 2002. It is hoped that works on the bridge will start in September, and will last two and a half years.
The Unity Bridge project is listed on the short-term action plan submitted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to the secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
Speaking during the event in Pemba, Chissano said the signing of the agreement was a giant step towards strengthening the bonds between the two countries and peoples. Apart from being geographically linked, Mozambique and Tanzania have historical, cultural, social, political and economic links that extend far back into colonial and pre-colonial history.
Tanzania hosted and supported Mozambican freedom fighters in the 1960s and early 1970s until independence in 1975, and it also contributed troops to help Mozambique fight against aggression from neighbouring Rhodesia.
More troops followed in 1987, when the apartheid regime in South Africa backed rebels operating from Malawi to overrun much of the Zambezia province, in central Mozambique.
“It’s equally a significant step towards the materialisation of what was one of the great dreams of our states’ founders, the late presidents Samora Machel and Julius Nyerere,” Chissano said, “a road link between our countries.”
The bridge, he said, would facilitate social and economic development in the river’s catchment area and beyond.
President Mkapa expressed his conviction that the project would boost development, not only in the riparian regions of Mtwara in Tanzania and Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, but also in the SADC region as it is an important component of the Mtwara development corridor.
The Mtwara development corridor is a Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) which has the backing of the four countries directly affected, that is, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania.
The corridor initiative, which was launched in December in Malawi, will include the improvement of the port at Mtwara, and the road and telecommunications network. Mtwara is strategically located in southern Tanzania, touching on northern Mozambique, as well as being a potential port for northern Malawi and eastern Zambia.
Chissano added that the bridge and road would shorten the distance between the Cape in South Africa and Cairo, Egypt, especially because works on a major bridge across the Zambezi river in Mozambique are to start very soon. The Cape to Cairo route is an old colonial project dreamt of by arch-colonialist, Cecil Rhodes, for whom Rhodesia was named.
“The benefits of the Unity Bridge will not be limited to bringing closer the peoples of our region, but also of the whole of Africa with all the resulting positive spins towards development. Our enthusiasm with the project is doubled if we consider that is part of the Nepad infrastructure development projects,” said Chissano.
The US$33 million bridge and road will be bankrolled by both governments. For good measure, Mkapa stressed that neither Mozambique nor Tanzania were so poor not to afford to finance such an important and unifying project. (SARDC)
