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Maintenance work on MV Liemba starts
2008-05-16 09:44:05
By Cassonga Peter, PST, Kigoma
Maintenance work on the MV Liemba`s defective engines, which had caused the vessel to suspend services on Lake Tanganyika for about three months now, has started.
A visit by PST to Kigoma port saw technicians engaged in removing the defective engines pending arrival of their replacements from Mwanza, according to a port official who preferred anonymity.
``The engines from Denmark are expected to arrive here any time from Mwanza where they will be transported by road,`` said the official, adding that upon arrival the new engines would be fixed immeditely.
Currently residents on the southern shores of Lake Tanganyika, who depend mainly on the ship for transport, are stranded owing to suspension of the ship`s services.
Their plight has been compounded by incidents of piracy which have periodically affected the services of another vessel, the MV `Mwongozo`, which also plies the lake`s ports.
The vessel was attacked by unknown people on December 5, 2001 when en route from Burundi, and in the second incident the following year a group of attackers almost hijacked it before security officers onboard saved the day.
``On April 18, this year, bandits fired several shots at the vessel as it was sailing back to Kigoma after having ferried refugees to the Democratic Republic of Congo,`` said the official.
Completion of maintenance work on the about 100-year-old vessel will go a long way to reducing transport problems facing residents on the southern flank of the world`s second deepest lake who currently rely on rickety and unsafe boats and canoes.
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