Kalundu Port Infrastructure Upgrade

Kalundu Port, located in Uvira, South Kivu Province, is one of the DRC’s most important inland waterway ports and a vital gateway for trade through Lake Tanganyika carrying approximately 40 000 metric tonned of cargo annually. It is the main entry point for goods into the Kivu region and an important link between eastern DRC and regional markets, particularly Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. From the outset, one of the port’s major constraints was sedimentation at the entrance. The build-up of a sandbank made access increasingly difficult and created a high risk of vessels grounding, particularly larger ships. This reduced the port’s ability to handle traffic efficiently and undermined its role as a reliable trade corridor. At the same time, the port also suffered from shallow berths, inadequate administration and cargo clearance facilities, ageing infrastructure, and poor cargo-handling systems. Together, these challenges limited the size of vessels that could dock, increased congestion and delays, and raised the cost of operations, with significant effects on small-scale traders and communities in eastern DRC that depend on the port for access to markets.