Irish Ambassador to Zambia Bill Nolan says the current shortage of accommodation in the country can be addressed through the construction of low cost houses.
Mr. Nolan advised government and private sector to engage in the construction of low cost houses to over the accommodation crisis resulting from urban population growth and unemployment
The Irish ambassador said this in an interview over the weekend shortly after a visit to the Habitat for Humanity housing project, funded by Irish Aid in Lusaka’s Chazanga compound.
Mr. Nolan said the country has continued to face problems in accommodations despite availability of vast undeveloped land. This negatively impacts on vulnerable families, including orphans.
He emphasised the need for private-public partnership in efforts of providing shelter especially to the underprivileged in society.[quote]
Habitat for Humanity Zambia Engineer, Edward Sakala, said his organization through the support of other cooperating partners is helping address the challenges of accommodation in the country.
Mr. Sakala said Habitat for Humanity Zambia plans to construct over 300 houses for orphaned children across the country this year.
He, however, appealed to government to consider allocating more land towards the project.
ZANIS
Oh my God, here we go again. Should it really take a foreigner to tell us what we can possibly do? Do we lack brains and skills to build affordable housing? Shame upon us guys. Those of you who remember how the houses in Chilenje South and Nyumba Yanga were built, the technique is very simple to reverse engineer or replicate. They used prefabricated concrete slabs for the walls. This way they were able to build many units in a short period of time. Shanties around Lusaka MUST be grazed down and replaced with new affordable structures. We have the cement, stones, sand, and cheap labor. What do others think?
Wherever this observation comes from, foreigner or citizen, it is noble. It must not be politicized. Accommodation shortage is real and its getting worse every day than we can realize it. The accommodation problem does not end with orphans only. There is generally no accommodation for the majority of citizens. The solution lays in the private sector such as Banks to give micro loans to developers who must develop houses and mortgage those houses to the people. That way it will easy the burden of one having to raise all the money to buy a house on cash. Government too through DBZ (Development Bank of Zambia) must be seen to be championing such projects. We encourage GRZ and private investors to venture in such developmental projects for the good of our people.
The government in conjunction with city or municipal councils should come up with a “Housing Policy”. This should allow these institutions to construct houses and sell to the citizen at affordable costs. Most countries are doing such projects and it is some development.
Our mother Zambia at the present moment allows people to build anywhere and anyhow without proper designs even where there is no adequate water, sewerage and road facilities.
Teta even when you were praised (thanked) by Sata for the Chinsali issue, this also is what you are supposed to be working on.
very true
#2 Patrick, I understand what you’re saying. The question is how many people in Zambia can afford to get a mortgage with current poverty levels not to mention the obscene interest rates. Let’s face it, home ownership in Zambia will remain a pipe dream for the majority of the population.
Laro, mwana you dead right. We shall keep on dreaming of one day by some magic, we ll a structure we ll call ‘my house’ Pipe dream indeed. Shameful.
Let those who can hear do so. There is a lot of sense in this.
We have developed a bad taste for luxerious and expensive items that the money that can go a long way will only build one Nigeria Film type of MANSION. We live even (far) better than the whites who introduced us to their civilization. Instead of buying a simple but reliable Toyota Hilux we go for a Hummer at an exorbitant price. Are we
True, but when we say “low cost”, we dont mean vimudadada!!! We need good houses for our people.
On the contrary look at what low cost housing has done to china! Those schools were built on sand and when the earthquake came, it claimed a lot of lives.
This should have been the idea just when Kachiluba came into power. But then he came up with the silly PHI which was nothing but a scam to loot fro the people of Zambia. If the whole of that area had been earmarked for real development like I have seen in Nyumba Yanga just opposite Camings, the accomodation madness happening in Lusaka could have been avoided.
#6 Maew, Short of GRZ giving away houses for free, very few low income earners can afford to purchase a home. As long as the majority of poverty stricken Zambians are not economically empowered and do not have disposable incomes, our economy will never improve.
At last someone is talking sense. These are the issues we should seriously debate on, accommodation is one of the reasons I move from Zambia.
Sata tried Mezaf project, but the guy is so corrupt, when it was time for the allocation of the flats, he moved then Lusaka town clerk to Kitwe and came up with his own list of tenant ignoring the list of us who applied straight to the council. The guy is such a waste of space (that sata)
I only hope RB and his pipo will listen to this voice of wisdom, and start acting, instead of just talking with no results.