Mozambique: Insurgents on the move in district in Cabo Delgado - official
File photo: A Verdade
On Sunday (March 24), more than a week after the water damaged the new National Road No. 6, road connections between the city of Beira and the rest of Mozambique has been re-established. However, a “short circuit in communications” prevented mobile metal bridges purchased for $11.9 million in 2016 from being used locally.
President Filipe Nyusi announced via his official Facebook page that “after several days of hard work, day and night, your Government has restored the traffic on the crucial National Road No. 6 that gives access to the city of Beira and to the countries of the hinterland. This will allow a greater flow of rescue teams to the victims of Cyclone Idai as well as ensuring that Mozambique continues to play its crucial role as main corridor for the supply of the countries in the region of the Port of Beira”.
However, the head of state, who has been in charge of the response to Cyclone Idai, which on Saturday 16 destroyed four sections of the brand new Beira-Machipanda road, did not explain why the metal bridges acquired by the executive in 2016 were not used to restore communications more quickly.
Acquired in China for US$11.9 million, the 10 platforms. with their specialised transport vehicles, can supposedly accommodate vehicles of up to 60 tons. The bridges vary from 21 to 75 metres in length, all of them five metres wide.
“The government cannot just weep and lament. We have to come up with solutions. One of the solutions is the one we present today. We do not just wait for the rain to come. We are ready. This equipment is ready for action,” Nyusi said at the December 2016 presentation of the bridges.
Quizzed by @Verdade, Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources João Machatine confirmed that the mobile metal bridges “are of use” the damaged sections of National Road No. 6, but that “there was some short circuit in communications”, adding: “I believe that they are coming today (March 22) or tomorrow (March 23).”
Machatine explained to A Verade that the emergency bridges “are being moved,” given that “some were in Caia [Sofala province] and others in Cabo Delgado [province]”.
Before the impact of the cyclone, the 287-kilometre stretch of road between Beira and Machipanda had been rehabilitated by the AFECC company at a cost of US$410 million, financed by the Exim Bank of China.
By Adérito Caldeira
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