{"id":6407,"date":"2019-11-06T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6407"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:40","slug":"malawis-dream-of-a-waterway-to-the-indian-ocean-may-yet-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/06\/malawis-dream-of-a-waterway-to-the-indian-ocean-may-yet-come-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Malawi\u2019s Dream Of A Waterway To The Indian Ocean May Yet Come True"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By The Conversation <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malawi\u2019s landlocked status places a huge&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanwaterfacility.org\/fileadmin\/uploads\/awf\/Projects\/AWF-Project-appraisal-report-MULTIN-SHIREZAMBEZI.pdf\">burden\non its economy<\/a>. This makes imports and exports expensive. Because of\ntime-consuming and poor-quality rail and road transport, the country\u2019s\ntransport costs are&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/repository.uneca.org\/pdfpreview\/bitstream\/handle\/10855\/23017\/b11560861.pdf?sequence=1\">among\nthe highest in Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The search for a solution has dominated Malawi\u2019s foreign\npolicy since independence in 1964. Malawi relies on four main trade corridors:\nthe ports of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; Beira and Nacala in Mozambique and\nDurban in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An alternative route is a waterway to the Indian Ocean\nthrough Mozambique. It was first proposed in 1891. The now&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.iese.ac.mz\/lib\/publication\/livros\/des2015\/IESE-Desafios2015_16_ConSob.pdf\">controversial\nidea<\/a>&nbsp;was revived in 2005 by Malawi\u2019s third president, Bingu wa\nMutharika (2004-2012) as a signature foreign policy project. It was known as\nthe Shire-Zambezi Waterway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Believing it would be an important legacy of his presidency,\nhe&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/africa\/malawi-zambia-seek-trade-waterway-mozambique\">consistently<\/a>&nbsp;claimed\nthat using the route from Nsanje in Malawi to Chinde in Mozambique would\ndrastically reduce Malawi\u2019s transport costs and boost economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malawi\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsomalawi.mw\/index.php?option=com_wrapper&amp;view=wrapper&amp;Itemid=110\">main\nexports<\/a>&nbsp;are tobacco, tea, sugar. It imports oils, consumer goods and\nfertilisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Malawi has so far failed to get access to the Indian\nOcean. Our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sum.uio.no\/english\/research\/publications\/2019\/happy-kayuni-dan-banik-joseph-chunga-the-perils-of-megaphone-diplomacy-malawian-mozambican-relations-following-the-shire-zambezi-waterway-project.html\">research<\/a>&nbsp;suggests\nthis is because of two important factors: Malawi\u2019s diplomatic strategy and the\nabsence of Mozambique\u2019s buy-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/malawis-dream-of-a-waterway-to-the-indian-ocean-may-yet-come-true-124718\">Read\nmore\u2026<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By The Conversation Malawi\u2019s landlocked status places a huge&nbsp;burden on its economy. This makes imports and exports expensive. Because of time-consuming and poor-quality rail and road transport, the country\u2019s transport&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}