These statistics show just how inadequate the roads in Malawi are and just how much lack of maintenance and increase of road infrastructure is evident seeing that from the year 1989,bituminised roads were 2,220.1 square kilometres in total and at 1997,after eight years, it was 2,885.4 square kilometres, showing a difference of only 665.3 square kilometres of roads which had been added. There is just too much of earth and gravel roads, which become inaccessible during the wet season and such roads have a negative impact on economic activities of our country.
- The following are the are examples of some areas with poor road networks:
The road network in Mzuzu city, according to researchers, is generally poor. They are a little better during the dry season and worse during the wet season. 30% of the roads are tarred but have outlived their life span, therefore they are in bad condition.60% of the roads are gravel and earth and become inaccessible during wet season. Among the roads not tarred as at 2002 were; Kaning’ina, Zolozolo, Masasa and Viphya.
The M26, Chitipa-Karonga road network is the only road that connects Chitipa to that rest of Malawi and its major harbours. Since 1990,the road has been lying in an obsolete condition and some of the bridges are swept away.
The Karonga-Chiweta road as at 2001,because now it has been face lifted, was in a bad condition and was caused by lack of maintanance. It had impacts, economically on areas around it.
4. Not only economically, but also socially have these roads understudy affected areas around them. These are a part of that country and the hindrance to economic development of the areas contributes to the underdevelopment of a country as a whole.
Poor road network has had an impact on agriculture, Malawi’s main economic activity, evident in areas like; Karonga, Chitipa, Salima and Lilongwe, where people are self employed in agriculture. Cash crops grown are maize, cotton; and subsistence crops grown are; rice, maize, ground nuts and cassava.
Few farmers manage to transport their products to markets like ADMARC and TAMA because of high transportation costs due to poor state of roads, which results in increasing wear and tear of the vehicles. Transportation of farm inputs like fertilizer and seeds is too high. Because of this, farmers have reduced their farms in order to reduce their yield, as they see no point of growing a lot of crops and then find no market to sell to. In Karonga, farmers who keep cattle fail to transport their milk products and the same is true for farmers who grow vegetables. In the past Karonga town used to be supplied with a lot of vegetables from as far as Mlare and Lupembe.This time they no longer sell their vegetables because they reach their destination in bad condition because of delay. Agriculture went down in areas where the Karonga-Chiweta road passed through (this was before it was face lifted) because farmers are rarely advised in new farming tequiniquies because the roads are bad and there fore high cost of transport restrict the advisers (extension). This reduced agricultural production deprives the nation of enough food and at the same time, farmers are deprived of steady income. Therefore most fishermen have decided to quit.
Most places like Chitipa have tourist potential of evergreen forests in Misuku hills and Nyika National park. These places attract tourists from both abroad and locally, which brings a lot of money. Chitipa, before the deterioration of the road, used to have many tourists and I has some Inns where tourists slept and therefore bringing money to the area. Some used to go to the national parks where guides are hired and this also brought money to the area. Because of the poor state of the road, tourists rarely visit, meaning that no customers to the National park or the Inn.
Absence of banks in some districts makes circulation of money in the district, low. There is a decrease in access to loans and credit facilities. In Karonga, since 1998, National bank of Malawi closed its services to Uliwa for security purposes. An officer said that due to poor state of the roads, vehicles could easily break down and often moved at a sloe pace which was risky to a vehicle which moved with cash.
Business operations and companies have been affected by poor road networks e.g. In Mzuzu city and Chitipa areas. Every company’s policy is to reach everyone despite condition of the road. They resort to hiring vehicles when theirs break down, which is expensive. They end up scaling down their operations and concentrates on routes that are less restrictive operationally and as a result there is no enlargement on consumer markets leading to impossibilities of economies of scale, production and distribution. In Chitipa, all wholesalers, except one have closed down their shop outlets (SOBO, CHIPIKU).
5.Poor road network has direct impacts on the economy of Malawi, but it is not the only factor that has hindered development. Some of these are; foreign policies (which restrict some exports and imports), laziness on our part, lack of skill, or rather, stereo-typing. We just concentrate on one way of developing our country, which we think is ‘education’, lack of technology.
6.All in all, road network or transport as implied by Lord Hailey, “there seems to be no other type of development apart from transport which can affect so speedy a change in the economic and social condition of a backward country” has surely proved to be true.
J.H.A. MAIDA: Factsheet on Ministry of Transport.(August 1992)
Pierre Yves Peguy: Dossier, The Courier (1998)
Transport statistics: National statistics office (1997)
Allan P. Kumwenda (23rd August 2002) Dissertation
Pickmore Swira (2003) Dissertation
Eric B.B. Munthali (2001) Dissertation