adminthe acquisition of housing stands, among other interventions. The launch of a revised National Housing Policy by President Mugabe on Monday is another step in the provision of housing and supporting infrastructure in urban areas.
The President said the Government would develop self-contained human settlements with housing, commercial and industrial facilities at the periphery of major urban centres as a means of decongesting cities.
“The policy should address our felt needs within the context of our cultural values and norms, meeting housing standards which at the same time address affordability levels, and meet our environmental and climatic conditions,” the President said.
Building regulations of our local authorities should be brought in line with the revised housing policy so that our people benefit from laws that allow them to build affordable but acceptable structures.
Some of our building regulations are so strict that even those from the developed world wonder when they come here why they are still in our statutes. We agree with the view that the housing policy should address our needs within our cultural context though we should not compromise on the safety of our people. Zimbabwe’s urban population was estimated at 23 percent in 1982, and rose to about 30 percent in the 1990s with 2005 UN-Habitat estimates putting the figure at 5,3 million.
Rapid urbanisation is a challenge that many countries have had to deal with at one point or another and decongesting choking cities is quite a challenge. It is against this background that a deliberate plan to establish satellite settlements around urban centres should be applauded.
From experience gained in the case of growth points that were established in the 1980s, there is need for economic activity to sustain the growth of such centres so that they pull people away from the centre towards outlying areas.
We believe the establishment of industrial shells and commercial units should serve that purpose though the policy should come with incentives so that investors find it worth while to start businesses at such centres.
The housing policy will thus require funding for it to become a reality and also serve its intended purpose of decongesting urban settlements and delivering housing units to 1,2 million people on the Government’s national housing waiting list.
Also, adopting building technologies that require less in terms of infrastructure support could help the country deliver more housing at less cost.
This is where densification comes in whereby options such as flats and other compact structures could come in handy. It is our fervent hope that the new thrust will be embraced by all stakeholders so that we do not continue to experience centralised development in bigger urban areas surrounded by abject poverty.
The National Housing Policy, first launched in 1999, was hamstrung by funding and did not deliver much and it is our hope that the new revised blueprint will overcome hurdles faced by the former guidelines. Partnerships between private players, Government and local authorities hold the key to improved housing development since housing development funding from the public sector has fallen short over the years, creating a huge backlog.
Local authorities, on their part, should offer more regulatory support and relax payment terms for stands since the use of middlemen has denied many potential home developers a chance to own properties due to the added cost of constructing houses.
As the President pointed out, it has been proven that if well facilitated, our people could build their own houses hence the need for local authorities and employers to support those willing to build on their own.
The development of growth areas around major urban areas could also lead to economic development that would increase incomes and see more people building their own houses while businesses develop more factories and shops leading to the growth of the satellite settlements that would eventually draw many people from larger towns, where some of our people have been reduced to squatters due to limited opportunities.
Shelter, we repeat, is a basic need that is an entitlement that enables our people to lay claim to having an improved standard of living hence the need for all stakeholders to buy into the new housing policy to ensure equitable growth of our urban areas without choking service provision in the face of population growth.
Online Reporter