Local Government and Housing Minister, Brain Chituwo has appealed to multi-lateral agencies, development partners and the private sector to support Zambia’s urban renewal and development programmes which are aimed at upgrading and preventing informal settlement.
Speaking during the 23rd session of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, Dr. Chituwo said Zambia, like most developing countries, was facing a serious challenge of high urbanization which had resulted in the mushrooming of unplanned settlement with inadequate basic services for human habitation.
According to a statement issued to ZANIS by Local Government Permanent Secretary, Timothy Hakuyu today, Dr. Chituwo said Zambia had developed urban renewal and development programmes and strategies to upgrade some shanty compounds.
He has therefore called on various development partners such as the United Nations Human Settlement Programmes (UN-Habitat) to support such programmes so that lives of the majority of citizens in high density areas are improved.
Dr. Chituwo is leading a Zambian delegation attending a week-long 23rd session of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat whose theme is “sustainable Urban Development through expanded access to land, housing, basic services and other infrastructure”.
The Minister also presented Zambia’s reform initiative such as land and housing policy reform, the reviewing of the Town and Country Planning Act, the enactment of the Public-Private Partnership Act to facilitate infrastructure development, including housing and the development of integrated development plans.
On the sidelines of the 23rd session of the Governing Council of UN- Habitat, the ministers also attended the African Ministers’ Conference on Housing and Urbanisation Development (AMCHUD), SADC Consultative meeting for the ministers responsible for housing development and the Ministerial commonwealth Consultative Group on Human Settlement where countries resolved to put access to land, housing development and upgrading of unplanned settlement high on their development agenda.
During AMCHUD, SADC, Commonwealth and (UN-Habitat) meetings, member countries observed with grave concern that many developing countries were not putting housing development as one of the priority sectors of sustainable development and poverty alleviation which was a recipe for an urban development crisis in the face of the high urbanizing world and climate change.
Member countries recognized the role housing development played in sustainable social-economic development and poverty alleviation and urged government to give housing development the priority it deserved and start to seriously plan for sustainable urban development in order to prevent the mushrooming of slums without basic services such as clean and safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
The 23rd session of the Governing Council UN-Habitat was officially opened on Monday 11th April by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, and is being attended by about 80 countries from all over the World. It is scheduled to officially close on 15th April 2011.
Zambia assumed her seat as the fifth Vice Chairperson and Rapporteur of the Bureau of AMCHUD for the next two years following her elections in Bamako, Mali in November last year 2010.
ZANIS
Dr. Chituwo, thanks for raising up the issue but that is President Sata new job when he comes: To pull down those eyes sore houses and make better houses. He couldn’t finish that job because of politics. It is a shame to have such houses 47 years after independence. SATA for President.
Okey it seems RB is slowly learning the art of delegation, Musokotwane in DC, Chituwo in Kenya, Namugala and Kazonga in Germany, Kunda in Barotseland etc. Is the challenger airworthy????
The minister and the government he is representing should realise that they cannot depend on their development partners to upgrade compounds for them. This is their job. They collect taxes, and ZRA Targets are exceeded each year. Where are they taking the money since the donars seem to finance most things about Zambia and government?
The other problem is their politicisation of public services. Had town planning been planned, all these shanties would not have been there in the first place.
KK tried hard by introducing and materially supporting housing project schemes called site and service. There was an idea and a plan, although it lacked supervision to ensure the building materials which were provided were used to finish building those houses.
You cant upgrade a shanty compound for gods sake! You can STOP people fro building them or DEMOLISH existing compounds and build NEW STRUCTURES . However that is unlikely to happen in a country like zambia. By the way if you go to google earth and look at lusaka its a horror picture, just a few decent buidings surrounded by huge shanties all over. If you build decent housing and put those poor people in them then in a year the houses will look like its a shanty compund anyway. The shanty compound is in the mind.
Coming to think about it, chibolya, misisi, kuku, kalikiliki, george, kamanga, kantolomba, sinya, makenzie, makululu, mulenga, lwangwa etc in 2011. Aaahhh, where did we go wrong? What sin did we commit do deserve this living hell which will undoubtedly continue even the aftermath of this life. In a every town in Zambia there are serious shanties where even toking about upgrading baaba muzayambila kuti!!! The whites are not at variance to call us underdeveloped, infact it is an understatement. What is amazing is chilila mu kumboni ka, happiness in misery lol!!!!!
#5 You’ve had illiterates as your first two Presidents. kaunda was given a blank sheet on which to work. He screwed up big time with his stu/pid party chairmen as town planners. They allocated land willy nilly to anyone who could show a UNIP party card. As for the little creep Mpundu aka FTJ he turned every open space and street into a market complete with a Vendors Desk at State House headed by a Minister. This is the reason Zambia is largely an embarassing sh/it/ho/le!
Very interesting information!Perfect just what I was searching for! “Oh, I don’t blame Congress. If I had 600 billion at my disposal, I’d be irresponsible, too.” by Lichty and Wagner.