“We should rise to the challenges of Niassa”

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“We should rise to the challenges of Niassa”

8:01 CAT | 19 Feb 2018

Notícias

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Friday called for hard work among all segments of society in the search for the best solutions to develop the northernmost province of Niassa.

“The path ahead is challenging, but we can go far because there is the political will and recognition that we need to work more if we are to rise to the challenges of Niassa”, said Rosario, in a meeting with leading Niassa business people.

He laid a heavy emphasis on transport links, notably the roads and railways linking Niassa to Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces.

“We have to stress the infrastructures”, he said. “Once Niassa is linked perfectly to Nampula and Cabo Delgado, certainly many of the problems that are raised today will be solved. And once the districts of Niassa are interconnected, facilitating the transport of goods, a lot of things will change”.

The previous day Rosario visited construction work on the road between the provincial capital Lichinga, and Niassa’s main economic centre, Cuamba, some 260 kilometres to the south. President Filipe Nyusi formally launched reconstruction of the road last year. The road has been divided into three sections, and the contract to pave the Cuamba-Muita stretch is due to be signed within a week.

cuamba.muita.road.mi — *Cuamba-Muíta road. Photo: Magazine Independente*

Niassa businesses, and the public at large, complain at the high prices of goods reaching Niassa from elsewhere in the country, largely due to transport costs. It was hoped that last year’s reopening of the branch railway line from Cuamba to Lichinga would cut costs for goods railed in from the port of Nacala.

This has not happened because of the high prices for freight charged by the Northern Development Corridor (CDN), the private-led consortium which runs the northern rail network.

“We want a table of prices from which everybody wins”, declared Rosario. “Nobody should be a loser, certainly not the general public. We shall request support from the Ministry of Transport so that the problem may be rapidly overcome”.

Also on Friday, the Prime Minister met with community and religious leaders with whom he discussed questions of peace and stability.

“We want a country where people live in tolerance, mutual respect and without hatred”, said Rosario. “We don’t want the events in Mocimboa da Praia to occur in Niassa or anywhere else in the country”.

He was referring to the abortive islamist insurrection in the Cabo Delgado district of Mocimboa da Praia on 5 October. Although the police quickly reasserted control in Mocimboa da Praia, there have been subsequent attacks, not only on the roads of Mocimboa da Praia, but in the neighbouring districts of Palma and Nangade.

On Saturday morning, Rosario visited Messumba, in Lago district, to see for himself the situation of 60 families currently living in tents, after their homes had been inundated by flooding on the Lunho river.

Speaking to the families affected, Rosario said he had instructed the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) and the provincial government to provide them with plots of land on which to build new houses, as well as building materials and clean drinking water.

He also praised the families for agreeing to build in safe areas, and to exploit low lying land near the river only for farming, and never to live there again. “We are also pleased that the INGC and the provincial government arrived in time to save your lives”, he added.

Source: AIM