Moamba — Mozambique's Minister of Public Works, Felicio Zacarias, on Monday expressed his confidence that the new bridge being built over the Incomati river in Moamba district, about 60 kilometres northwest of Maputo, will not suffer the fate of its predecessor, washed away in the catastrophic floods of February 2000.

The bridge links the town of Moamba to the Sabie administrative post. When completed it will be 300 metres long, and ten metres wide. The platform of the bridge rests on 11 pillars, and is being constructed two meters above the maximum height reached by the river in the 2000 flood.

Speaking to reporters in Moamba, Zacarias said the work is on schedule and everything led him to believe that it would be completed ahead of the deadline fixed in the contract.

Work on the bridge, budgeted at 7.4 million US dollars, made available entirely from the Mozambican state budget, began in December 2006. The bridge is now about 80 per cent complete.

Currently, a metallic bridge cover the river carries the road between Moamba and Sabie. That bridge is removed every time the Incomati rises.

Zacarias was sure that the bridge under construction would resist everything that nature could throw at it. "It's here to stay", he declared. He added that it would facilitate life in Moamba district, allowing the normal movement of people and goods, particularly agricultural produce, thus allowing full exploitation of the district's potential.

Zacarias announced that work is under way to select a contractor to repair the Samora Machel bridge over the Zambezi in the central city of Tete, and also to find funds to build a second bridge at Tete. This was justified because of the flow of merchandise along the Zimbabwe-Malawi road, which passes through Tete. In the near future there is also likely to be a continual flow of trucks carrying coal from the mines in the Tete district of Moatize.

The existing bridge is damaged and, while officials say there is no danger of it falling into the river, only one heavy goods vehicle at a time is allowed to use it.