The Malawian government's plans to turn the Shire and Zambezi rivers into a commercial waterway have been rejected. The two rivers have been deemed non-navigable in their natural state by a German consultant who conducted a viability study, Mozambican Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita told Radio Mozambique.
Mesquita explained that the rivers could only be used for commercial shipping if they were dredged, which was extremely expensive.
“It would be necessary to invest $18 million in initial dredging,” he said, adding that it would take a further $30 million to maintain the dredging and an additional $50 million to clear vegetation.
With this expenditure, the rivers would only be navigable for four or five months a year, which was not an economically viable investment as the volume of traffic to and from Malawi was too small, said Mesquita.
