§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action is being taken to ensure that United Kingdom and European Community food aid arrives in southern Africa by the end of June; and what aid is provided for port rehabilitation, transport and management.
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydFood aid for southern Africa needs to flow steadily over the next few months to use all the transport capacity available, and ensure that the supplies do not arrive in the ports all at once. EC and UN food aid is planned with other donors on this basis. A logistics advice centre has recently been set up by the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference and the World Food Programme in Harare to assist in the co-ordination of food deliveries.
Support for the rehabilitation and development of ports and island transport routes is an important part of United Kingdom development aid to southern Africa, including over £17 million for the development of Maputo port, and £5.47 million for the repair and rehabilitation for Tanga port in Tanzania. Our present assistance for inland transport includes £31.5 million for the rehabilitation of the Limpopo and Nacala railways in Mozambique, £14 million from the northern transport corridor linking southern Malawi with Dar es Salaam, and £1.27 million for the rehabilitation of the Beira corridor railway.