Transportation Urban Planning in the City of Maputo, Mozambique

Home , Matola, Nampula, Transport in Mozambique

Transportation urban planning in the city of

M.G. Mendes de Araujo & I.M. Raimundo Department of GeographyFaculty of Arts

Eduardo Mondlane University,Mozambique.

Abstract

Overall urban population growth rates have been high in the period between 1975 and 2001. In the city of Maputo, migration was the main factor for this increase. This growth of population increased also the problems of transportation. The results of this situation are successive arises in all sectors. Private transport or public transport both is complementary in their offer of services to city dwellers. The question is how and in which path can be followed to improve transport for people if we consider that the population grew dramatically and the infrastructures have grown slowly. In the area under the study, the city of Maputo, transportation problems have changed in the past 20 years, and will certainly exist in the fuhue. The essence of our argument is to show that in spite of all above mentioned problems the transport services could be better if public and private sectors cooperate closer so that both would complement each other.

1 Introduction

This paper describes the problem of Urban Transportation Planning in the city of Maputo, based on a study carried out in the city of Maputo, the capital of the Republic of Mozambique between 1996 and 2001 as part of the annual project to study the urban relations in Mozambique. It draws from interviews and arcbval information. The urban population in Mozambique, according to the census of 1997 consisted of 4,454,839 inhabitants, corresponding to 27,7 per cent of the total population of the country.

The four major cities of Mozambique are Maputo, Matola, Beira and Nampula (table 1). The city of Maputo concentrates more than double of the people of the population of the second major city in Mozambique, Matola, which forms conurbation with Maputo. Beira and Nampula closely follow Matola.

The demographic growth of these cities between 1980 and 1997 is shown in table 1. The highest growth rates recorded are those of Matola and Nampula, which doubled their population between 1980 and 1997. Between 1975 (right after Mozambique's independence) and 200 1 there was a continued massive rural-urban migration into Maputo. As a consequence, the urban population grew dramatically and the urban infrastructures such as transport were unable to cope. Most urban planners, particularly, those who deal with transport matters, wonder how they can solve the problem, since the cost of living and poverty are increasing. The practice of managing transport facilities should include, both public and private sectors. The major problem lies in the private sector charging higher fares than the public one. Furthermore, most private transport does not respect routes, timetables and carrying capacity of passengers. Nonetheless, public transport capacity is not su£ficient to cover all the needs of city dwellers. Moreover, most of the users of transport feel that fares do not correspond to operational cost because the fares of short and long distances are the same (Crispin, 1982).

The essence of our argument is to show that in spite of all above mentioned problems the transport services could be better if public and private sectors cooperate closer so that both would complement each other.

Table 1. Growth population between 1980 and 1997.

Source: Conselho Coordenador do Recenseamento, 1980 and Institute Nacional de Estatistica, 1999).

Background

The city of Maputo is situated in the southeast of Africa in the very south of Mozambique. It is the capital of the Republic of Mozambique covering an area of 300 square kilometres, representing 0,03 per cent of the national territory. Maputo is divided into five urban districts and two administrative posts.

Between 1975 and 1980 the growth of Maputo population after reached population growth corresponding to 6, 1 per cent (Conselho Coordenador do Recenseamento, 1980). In numbers this meant an increase from 400,000 to

537,912 in 1980, when the first post independence census was done. This growth was only in demographic terms, because the infrastructures did not show an increase. Growth had existed before independence due to industrialisation and rapid growth of the service sector and employment opportunities. Between decade 1960-1970 Maputo (then Lourenqo Marques) and Matola practically doubled their population (Azevedo, 1970; Rita-Ferreira, 1972). According to the data resulting from the 1997 census (17 years after the first) the number of the city dwellers city of Maputo had grown to around 1 million 966,337). The state and formal and informal services provided income opportunities after independence. Between 1983 and 1990 there was also a heavy influx of refugees from civil war (for a discussion of phenomena and causes see Araujo, 1988, Lattes, 1990, Araujo, 1997, 1999,Raimundo, 2001). Considering the two periods of the censuses (197511980 and 198011997), the demographic population growth rates were 6,l per cent and 3,2 per cent respectively. Over 20 years (1975 to 1997) the city dwellers have trebled.

Table 2: Population distribution in different high suburbs of the city of Maputo

(1980 and 1997).

Nowadays, some areas of the city of Maputo are literally saturated, such as the highdensity low-inmme residential suburbs that are listed in table 2. city", and Because these suburbs are located away from the "cement therefore, all these dwellers need daily a regular transport from their home places to the work sites. The major rates of population growth were registered in the suburban residential expansion areas such as Mahotas and in other periphery areas (Costa do Sol). These suburbs are located away from the "cement city", which concentrated the offices, upper class residences and all the formal jobs. The growth in the "urbaniza@o" suburb in 1990 resulted from the spontaneous

620 Urban Tramport and the Ei~~~~,nr~rnatzrit? rha 21st Canrurv

occupation of the rubbish dump closed in 1971. Because of this situation most of the people have to travel daily fkom their residence areas to the "cement city".

3 Urban transportation versus population growth

This section is reserved to analyse the main problems that have affected the city dwellers particularly at the level of the satisfaction of fiom the home transport residence to the jobs or to other needs. However, attention has to be paid to the fact that, the objective is not to be an exhaustive analysis, but it serves to demonstrate how the transport inadequacy have had an impact on the condition of life of the city dwellers particularly who live in periphery areas away from the

"cement city", but it serves to express the problems faced by planners on the transport sector. According to Pound (1981), transport affects all population activities. Assuming that it is part of the production process and it also links producers and consumers. Many different areas of production, rest and leisure require not only the existence of a transport system to connect these areas but also the existence of transport that facilitates trade between producers and consumers and carries workers commuting from their homes to work and vice-versa. The problem of transport in the city of Maputo has worsened between

1982 and 2001(Direc@o de Mnsito e transporte da cidade de Maputo, 1994). The main reasons for that are related to the population growth that is not adjusted with the growth of the transport and the lack on urban transport investment. This situation has been aggravated with the increasing of level of cost. The results of the study show that in the terminals and buses-stop of public transports, city dwellers have to wait for long hours especially during the rush hours (7-9 a.m. and 4-7 p.m. as well as 10-12 p.m.). Apart from the lack of the public transport, the cities in Mozambique are facing others problems such as waste management and water drainage. This situation brings various consequences, which affect the

quality of life of the population, because the majority of the city dwellers live far fiom the cement city. It is important to refer that, the offices, the railway and dockworker that are concentrated in the stone city absorb about 70 per cent of the workers in the city of Maputo. Looking at the relationship between the growth of city population and the evolution of urban transport, we can conclude that the city of Maputo along the time has receiving a large number of migrants searching for job or other facilities such as school and health services, while the transport sector since then did not receive sufficient support to maintain and expand its fleet. The

consequence of this lock of adjustment between population growth and decreasing public transport causes as a consequence more demand than supply and this result in much time wasted waiting for the transport as we can observe in the table below.

Table 3. Public transport and number of buses at the bus stop.

Bus stop Time Period 0730 and 0830 1000-1100 1600-1700 Museu 7 3 7 Electricidade 8 5 6

Embaixada de Portugal l 0 1 Victoria 11 6 l l Source: Fieldwork, 1996 and 2001

In fact, public transport has been characterized by the several problems related to insui3cient vehicles, spare parts of vehicles such as tyres and parttcularly the bad conditions of the roads, which are full of potholes. In view of this, transportation problems became more acute with the reduction of the number of vehicles. To solve this problem in 1987 the year of the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Economic and Social Program, the government liberalized the passenger transport by authorizing private transporters to operate in the city. This authorization becomes effective in 1989. The new policy also establishes priority to reduce the cost of fares and improving conditions of roads.

4 The private sector

The private transport in Mozambique for city dwellers started informally at the end of the 1980's in order to cope the problems of public urban transport. This transport is called "chapa cem " (ticket one hundred), it establishes inter-urban and intra-urban linkages. It is important to refer that the mini buses, the fare was originally 100Mt. However, today, each fare it cost 4,000.00 MT. 1 USD it is equivalent to 24,850.00 MT. Since the beginning this kind of transport has been having problems related to the fact initially it was illegal and the fares that the users had to pay were considered high (Lambo, 1996). Workers who daily have to travel from residence to their work sites spend an average of 8,000.00 MT. The minimum salary is about 500,000.00MT, while most of households are comprised of 6 people. For those workers who work 20 to 25 days per month, if they use this kind of transport, absorbs about 40 per cent of the minimum salary. The "chapa cem", it has been seen as the panacea for all the transportation problems. Although it operates without schedule, uncomfortable vehicles, is unreliable and fails to keep the prescribed routes and does not respect the carrying capacity (as we can observe in the table 4). However, most of the interviewed prefer to use this transport. The most important is the fact that the so called "chapa 100" is able to cope with the lack of public transport.

Table 4. Brand of "chapa cem" and carrying capacity

Brand of vehicle Carry capacity Passengers transported

Renault 15 27/30 Volkswagen 12 17/20 Mercedes Benz 25 47/50 Toyota Dyna 25 47/50

Source: Fieldwork, 1996 and 2001

Table 5. Private transport and time waiting at the bus stop.

Time Period 1600-1700 Museu

Electricidade Embaixada de Portugal Vitoria 30 27 33 Source: Fieldwork, 1996 and 200 1

5 Conclusion

Overall urban population growth rates have been high in the period between

1975 and 2001, In the city of Maputo, migration was the main factor for this increase. This growth of population increased also the problems of transportation. The results of this situation are successive arises in all sectors. The major problem is how to plan the different sectors in this situation. Private transport or public transport both is complementary in their offer of services to city dwellers. The question is how and in which path can be followed to improve transport for people if we consider that the population grew dramatically and the infrastructures have grown slowly. In the area under the study, transportation problems have changed in the past 20 years, and will certainly exist in the future.

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