MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Mauritania
Index
Figure 9. Transportation System, 1987
Nouakchott's Friendship Port built by China
Courtesy Embassy of Mauritania, Washington
The developed transportation network centered on the mining
and fishing industries. The country's only railroad, a 650-
kilometer-long line, connected the Zouîrât mines with Nouadhibou
(see
fig. 9). Both the railroad and the ore port were operated by
SNIM. The port had the capacity to handle bulk ore carriers of up
to 150,000 tons, and the railroad carried some of the world's
longest and heaviest trains
(see Mining
, this ch.). Nouadhibou
was the country's only natural deep-water port and, in addition
to the ore port, contained a separate commercial and fishing
port. The fishing port was upgraded in 1983 under a US$8 million
World Bank loan.
In late 1986, the US$150 million Friendship Port at
Nouakchott was officially opened. Financed and built by China,
the 500,000-ton-per-year deep-water port was an engineering feat,
as the Chinese laborers had to contend with strong Atlantic
currents and waves up to six meters high. The port was expected
to eliminate the need to divert 35 to 40 percent of Nouakchott's
traffic through Dakar, Senegal, and to reduce the high percentage
of goods lost during transshipment from ships at anchorage.
Despite the official opening, by late 1987 the new port was not
yet in service because it still lacked certain facilities and
equipment.
In the late 1980s, Mauritania's total road network was
estimated at 9,000 kilometers. Only 1,500 kilometers of roadway
were paved; the roadway consisted mainly of two trunk roads. The
remaining roads were little more than tracks on the sand. Road
construction had been a high priority for Mauritania's planners
in the 1970s. The chief project at that time was the US$300
million, 1,000-kilometer Nouakchott-Néma Road (also called the
Trans-Mauritanian Highway), financed largely through loans from
Arab members of OPEC. But because the road was constructed
through the desert north of the populated agricultural region
along the Senegal River, additional major funding was later
needed to link the southern towns of Bogué and Kaédi to the
capital via this largely unused trunk road. Moreover, projected
recurrent costs for maintenance of the Nouakchott-Néma Road were
well above the government's foreseeable budgetary means.
Mauritania's other major surfaced road connected the capital to
Akjoujt and Rosso.
Airports at Nouakchott and Nouadhibou were capable of
handling commercial jet aircraft. In 1986 the French were
conducting studies to expand the airport at Nouakchott to handle
Boeing 747s and comparable aircraft, and the European Development
Fund was financing an automatic communications center at the
airport. In the mid-1980s, the capital was served by Air Afrique,
Iberia, Royal Air Maroc, and Union des Transports Aériens (UTA),
including twice-weekly direct flights to Paris and six weekly
flights to Dakar, where links were available for direct flights
to New York three times a week. Internal flights were available
between the capital and Nouadhibou and some thirty smaller
airports. The national airline, Air Mauritanie, operated two
eighty-seat Fokker F-28 passenger airliners for domestic flights
and for flights to Dakar and Las Palmas.
In 1985 radiotelephone and wireless telegraph services linked
Nouakchott to Paris, to most regional capitals, and to other
towns in Mauritania. In 1986 the government began operating earth
satellite stations in Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. The system
linked Mauritania to the International Telecommunications
Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) network and the Arab Satellite
Telecommunications Organization (ARABSAT) network. It provided
ninety telephone or telegraph circuits and a link for television
reception and transmission.
Data as of June 1988
|
|