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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
Government has approved the construction of 500 modern houses for Cyclone Idai victims in rural Chimanimani by Econet Wireless as it moves to modernise and transform rural areas in line with Vision 2030. Manicaland Provincial Affairs Minister Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba yesterday said the homes to be constructed by the mobile operator would follow a model which will be used in the development of all rural areas.
She was speaking at a meeting to mark the end of a two-day visit by a delegation of ambassadors of different nations led by the United Nations resident coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli.
Econet has secured 2 010 hectares of land from Government where it will construct the 500 houses, drill boreholes as well as install solar grids to power the place. The houses are expected to benefit the most vulnerable in the community.
“We have accepted the offer by Econet to build homes for 500 families and agreed on the areas where both Government and the communities feel they will be safe. We have also agreed on a model which we are going to adopt after some technical experts have done some spatial planning,” said Dr Gwaradzimba.
“We are guided by our Government’s call to move towards being a middle-income economy and driven by the concept of modernisation, urbanisation and industrialisation.”
The minister called on development partners who are willing to assist in the construction of homes to adopt the same model.
“You would have noticed the way our people were settled; they were scattered all over. Even the quality of houses they built were not standard and this made it easy for them to be destroyed by the cyclone.
“The communities we want to build now are modern. We want to upgrade the standards of the houses in our rural homes. Our focus is to improve the rural areas where people are poor and disadvantaged, hence the need to build standard housing,” said Dr Gwaradzimba.
She said there was need to also construct irrigation infrastructure in the new communities to ensure sustainable livelihoods for villagers.
“In the new communities that we want to build, we want to promote rural industry. So it will be self-contained and meeting all the basic requirements of a modern society in the rural areas,” she said.
She said the resettlement of people in the urban areas would move once technical experts certify the suitability of the selected areas for human settlement.
Giving his remarks, Mr Parajuli commended Government efforts in coordinating humanitarian assistance to the affected families and called for a more coordinated approach by all development partners.
“Going forward, we need to continue to work on long-term recovery plans.
“We need to work on mobilising more support from donors. The $75 million from the World Bank is a boost which will go a long way to improve the situation. Recovery can take a long time, so planning in advance is needed and working together might work for us,” he said
The objective of the visit was to assess the work of UN agencies and humanitarian partners in support of the national response to Cyclone Idai and to observe first-hand the challenges faced by communities affected.
Online Reporter