Incessant rains have damaged roads and bridges across the country, cutting off access in several key areas, including the Northern Region which was yesterday disconnected from the rest of the country.
The disruptions were worse on the M1 between Kasungu and Mzimba districts as well as the M5, also known as the Lakeshore Road, between Nkhotakota and Nkhata Bay.
Both roads are gateways to Dar es Salaam Port in Tanzania, one of Malawi’s key ports for imports and exports.
In Kasungu, the M1, currently undergoing rehabilitation, was closed after floods washed away bridges at Mphomwa and Nkhamenya while in Nkhotakota, the floods rendered parts of the Lakeshore Road impassable at Dwangwa, Kaombe, Nchandilo and Nkaika bridges.
The disruptions have affected business and social activities, with some Malawians cut off from their destinations and others left in the middle of nowhere.
Roads Authority (RA) chief executive officer Engineer Ammiel Champiti in an interview yesterday said Mota-Engil has been deployed to work on the M1 in Kasungu while China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation was restoring connectivity on the M5.
He said RA was conducting further assessments to determine other roads affected by the floods, adding that Dwangwa Bridge, which
has over the years been subjected to persistent cuts, would also be assessed by the contractor working on the M5.
Said Champiti: “On the M1, the contractor is on site back-filling and doing support work on the bridge. We are also looking at how we can put temporary crossings on some sections of the road.
“On the M5, we are still doing investigations because there are still floods, and once the water subsides, we will have a clear picture.”
But the RA chief declined to indicate the cost of repairing the damaged sections of the two key roads, saying the maintenance costs would be determined after the assessments.
Meanwhile, the Transporters Association of Malawi (TAM) has said scores of trucks transporting fertiliser for the Farm Inputs Subsidy Programme as well as fuel were stuck due to the cut-offs.
In an interview yesterday, TAM chairperson Frank Banda said: “We are appealing to the Roads Authority to fast-track the fixing of the roads even if it means building temporary bridges so that transportation should resume.”
Wyson Chiusi, a Lilongwe-based technician, is one of the travellers affected by the situation.
In an interview yesterday, he said he was travelling to Nkhotakota to fix machinery, but was forced to return to his base because the road was impassable.
Chiusi appealed to RA to urgently fix the road, saying the situation had affected the businesses of many Malawians.
