Port of Quelimane in Mozambique Undergoes Dredging

The dredging of the port of Quelimane, in Mozambique’s Zambézia province, is due to begin this month and will last until January 2016. Once the work is completed around 320,000 cubic metres of sediment are expected to have been removed, Mozambique’s Minister of Transport and Communications said.

Minister Carlos Mesquita, who was speaking in the city of Beira, said dredging had not taken place for at least five years in the port and that following the work the port should have an overall depth of 5 metres.

Mesquita said the port of Maputo had increased from 9 to 14 metres deep, while the port of Beira, which is tidal, had reasonable conditions for berthing ships, with an average depth of 8 metres along its access channel.

Cited by Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias, the minister stressed that because of discharges from the Pungué river, dredging at the port of Beira totals 2.5 million cubic metres per year and in the first half of the year Empresa Moçambicana de Dragagem (Emodraga) removed 1.25 million cubic metres of sediment.

The 22 buoys set up along the access channel to the port of Beira undergo maintenance on a fortnightly basis and ships of up to 60,00 gross registered tons can now move around the port at night, compared to ships of up to 30,000 tons previously.