Transport woes haunt Rumphi, NB residents

Lack of proper transport system between Mlowe in Rumphi and Usisya in northern Nkhata Bay along Lake Malawi is putting lives at risk as people are forced to board unseaworthy boats, it has emerged.

Most of the areas along the said stretch of Lake Malawi are not accessible by road despite calls to authorities for a road along the lake to ease mobility, thereby restricting people to water transport.

Most operators on the route overload their boats and have no life jackets, a must for marine vessels carrying passengers.

Rumphi Police Station spokesperson Victor Khamisi yesterday confirmed that the boat that capsized in Rumphi on Sunday was unseaworthy and had no life jackets despite carrying about 70 people on board.

He said: “It is one of the boats that people normally use. It was fitted with an engine, but it operates without life jackets.”

Rumphi East member of Parliament (MP) Kamlepo Kalua (People’s Party-PP), whose constituents were among the Sunday accident victims, said people have no choice but to board such boats because the area has transport problems.

He said the situation has been like that for years.

Kalua said the areas where the people were travelling to are only accessible by water. He said most of the areas are impassable and it becomes even a challenge to walk on foot.

The legislator said it was not surprising that the boat was overloaded as everyone was eager to go home.

Said Kalua: “We have transport challenges. It has been like that for a longtime. These people were eager to go home after the Easter celebration. With no proper means of transport and most areas being impassable [due to the rains], everyone wanted to board the boat because that was the only transport available.

“It is very sad that we have lost these people. Of course, it is not time to blame anyone. We have to put politics aside and accept that it has happened.”

Rumphi district commissioner Lusizi Nhlane confirmed the poor transpaort system in the areas along the lake due to difficult terrain.

Said the DC: “In fact, they [the vessels] are not real boats. They are just locally made fishing boats or big canoes. They are meant to carry a maximum of 30 or 40 people, but they overload them because there is no access road from Mlowe to Tchalo which is a distance of 45 kilometres [away].”

He added that efforts to have a road in the area are proving futile as the area is hilly. 

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe, who visited the survivors at Mlowe, said government plans to construct a road passing through the area.

He said government is committed to construct the road but could not indicate when the road will be constructed. He said engineers would be deployed to survey the area.

 Said Gondwe: “We will have to do it, but not this year, not next year but we will have to do it.”

Meanwhile police have identified the deceased as follows: Jane Gondwe from Chinjati Village, T/A Mwamlowe in Rumphi,GloriaPhiri from Mazama Village, T/A Mzikubola in Mzimba, Gondwe’sinlaw only identified as NyaJere and two others Salome Luhanga and a MrsMzembe whose full particulars were not immediately available. n