Kigoma Port
Kigoma is one of the busiest ports on Lake Tanganyika, since historically it was the only one that had a functioning railway connection (the one at Kalemie in DR Congo is not operational), a direct link to the seaport at Dar-es-Salaam. Kigoma Port in Kigoma Bay has a wharf of two hundred metres and several cranes and is equipped to handle shipping containers. However, the bay is suffering from silting up as a result of soil erosion from surrounding hills, and the water depth at wharfside has diminished from 6 m to 1.8 m which threatens the economic future of the port. In May 2007 the Tanzanian Government announced a plan to create an economic zone at the port to stimulate trade.
Lake ferries including the MV Liemba sail from Kigoma to Bujumbura in Burundi, Kalundu-Uvira in DR Congo, Mpulungu in Zambia at the southern tip of the lake, and a number of other lakeside towns in Tanzania.
Road connections for Kigoma are poor however. A gravel road links the town northeast to the national road network, and earth tracks link north to Burundi and southeast to Sumbawanga.
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