Measures promised to avoid repeat of tanker tragedy

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Measures promised to avoid repeat of tanker tragedy

8:07 CAT | 13 Dec 2016

Jornal Domingo

Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Leticia Klemens, has claimed that the government is taking corrective measures to avoid any repetition of last month’s tragedy in Moatize district, in the western province of Tete, where the explosion of a fuel tanker killed over a hundred people.

“We are paying due attention”, said Klemens, cited in the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”.

Visiting the Brazilian coal mining company Vale in Moatize, and the resettlement area of Cateme for people displaced by Vale’s open cast mine, she said that the tragedy deeply concerned the government, which was working to ensure that it never happens again.

“I’m talking about corrective measures”, added Klemens. “We have some solutions that we shall present in the future. They are precautionary measures, measures that are the responsibility of the transporters themselves and of the population”.

The disaster occurred in the locality of Caphiridzange on 17 November, when a large crowd was stealing fuel from the tanker, which belonged to a Malawian haulage company. The tanker was carrying about 80,000 litres of petrol, in two large tanks, from the port of Beira to Malawi.

On the main road through Tete to Malawi the truck suffered a breakdown. A second truck (without a trailer) arrived from Malawi, but instead of taking the cargo to its intended destination the two Malawians, coordinating with informal Mozambican fuel traders, decided to steal the petrol. The result was a catastrophic explosion and fire in which well over a hundred people were killed or maimed.

According to Lidia Cunha, the director of Tete Provincial Hospital, the death toll has now reached 103. Only 11 people have recovered from their burns sufficiently to be discharged, and a further 23 patients remain hospitalised.

Source: AIM