Malawi, Zambia intensify boundary re-mapping

Malawi and Zambia have scaled up their boundary demarcation exercise, saying this would promote peaceful co-existence and development. The two Southern African countries also said by hastening the pace of the exercise, they want to meet a directive by the African Union that set 2012 as deadline for all international boundaries demarcation.

Malawi’s Lands and Housing Minister Khumbo Chirwa alongside his Zambian counterpart Bradford Machila pledged their country’s total commitment to the exercise during the official opening of the Council of Ministers meeting on the Zambia/Malawi International Boundary meeting held in Malawi’s northern city of Mzuzu.

“Our two governments recognise the need to demarcate the boundary between our two countries to safeguard our peaceful co-existence and development. We are also mindful of the African Union (AU) directive that all international boundaries should be physically demarcated by the year 2012, hence the intensification of the demarcation process,” said Machila.

He said the two governments have also demonstrated commitment to the initiative by annually allocating funds to the project.

However, Machila said despite the commitments, the two sides still had challenges ahead of completion of the exercise, some of which were ensuring that people living along the boundary live in harmony and not culturally divided by the boundary demarcation.

“We also have the challenge of ensuring that amicable solutions are found to the problems that may arise from the physical demarcation of the boundary. We also have the challenge of ensuring that logistics and resources are made available to the joint survey team to facilitate easy access to inaccessible areas like the Nyika Plateau,” said Machila.

The council of ministers meeting brought together ministers and top government officials from the two countries to be briefed and brainstorm on progress of the demarcation exercise.

The Zambia/Malawi frontier, spanning from Mwami/Mchinji in the central of Malawi to Nakonde/Chitipa in the north of Zambia, is according to Machila, the third largest frontier that Zambia shares with her eight neighbours--covering a distance of 804km.

“It will be recalled that the Zambia/Malawi boundary was inherited from the Berlin Agreement of 1855, which refers to the watershed of the catchment’s area of Lake Malawi and the basin of waters flowing into the Luangwa River. The British government that administered the two countries before their independence, did not leave a physical demarcation of the boundary between the two countries,” he said.

Chirwa concurred with his counterpart, saying Malawi takes the exercise seriously, stressing that it was also key to stability and co-existence of citizens of the two countries living along the borders.

“Since we embarked on the project, Malawi has taken it seriously and is committed to its quick conclusion as it is a key to the stability of our communities living along the international boundaries. Stability of these communities forms the basis for the socio-economic growth that will add to the economic growth of our two countries,” Chirwa told the country’s local daily of the Daily Times.

However, Chirwa said it was imperative that the two countries’ commitment should be translated into action on the ground so that the assignment would be concluded within the AU stipulated period.