Maputo — The Mozambican port and rail company, CFM, has promised to resume traffic along the Limpopo line, which links Maputo and Zimbabwe, on Friday, after a two day interruption caused by the torrential rains of Wednesday.

The rains opened an enormous crater underneath the railway in the peri-urban Ferroviario neighbourhood. The crater is seven metres long and four meters deep. A culvert, and all the ballast supporting the line, has been washed away, and so the tracks and their sleepers hang in mid-air above the crater.

Two houses close to the railway were also severely damaged, because the raging waters swept away much of the soil supporting them.

The rail director of CFM's southern region, Ricardo Daniel, told AIM on Thursday that it was not the rains themselves that damaged the line. The structure was strong enough to resist the storm, and the culvert should have drained the waters away rapidly.

But some nearby residents blocked the culvert with earth and rubbish, to prevent the drainage system from working, because they did not want the waters to flow into their yards.

"Out of naivety or malevolence, people blocked the drainage system, preventing the waters from flowing through", said Ricardo. So water accumulated and eventually the pressure was such that it simply demolished the culvert, located at kilometre 17 of the 522 kilometre long Limpopo line.

CFM has sent a repair team of 50 men to repair the damage, and Ricardo was optimistic that the "preliminary intervention" will be finished by Friday, allowing trains to use the line again. Further repair work will take place later, but without interrupting rail traffic.

Daniel could not put a figure on the losses to CFM, but admitted that they are substantial. They include the costs of repairing the line, and lost revenue from cancelled trains. The passenger trains that carry workers who live in Manhica and Marracuene districts into Maputo have not run since Tuesday, and the weekly passenger train from Maputo to Chicualacuala, on the Zimbabwean border, has also been cancelled.