dyton mupawaenda
Talent Gore
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume has said densification is the best way to address housing challenges due to urbanisation and the rapid increase in population in the city.
Densification is a strategy that involves among others, building more apartments and housing units to create a more efficient use of space.
Speaking during a cluster housing policy meeting on Tuesday at Town House with Harare residents, Mayor Mafume said there is a need for proper utilisation of the remaining land in Harare.
‘’The possibility of expanding Harare is no longer viable because all the land we could have bought for Harare has already been utilised by both informal and formal settlements.
‘’We are closed in and unfortunately, these settlements around Harare do not have clinics, schools, and shops, which are straining our facilities.”
Mayor Mafume said for the development of clusters in Harare they were going to engage developers so that the clusters have the same standards.
“What we are going to do is to then look at developers so that we can partner and have a standard,” he said.
“Some of these clusters put pressure on the suburbs, they put pressure on refuse collection and service delivery in general so I was suggesting that for someone to get a permit for a certain number of clusters one must buy refuse collection equipment.
“If you are building 20 clusters, buy a skip bin and truck because the residents are going to be under pressure to cover for the many people that you are bringing in.
Mayor Mafume added:
“Some of these developers then build big walls that create corridors of darkness in our streets, back then we used to have streetlights and light from corridors.
“So, we need to say every two meters of a security wall that is facing a road, a light must be fixed on that security wall so that it doesn’t create a stretch of darkness in that street because you have decided that you don’t want to be seen in your house.”
Mayor Mafume added that they want to stop the allocation of unserviced land so that professional developers are engaged to encourage people to get proper services on their lands, so that we experience the problem of recurrent diseases.
Acting Director of Urban Planning, Samuel Nyabezi, said that generally, cluster houses are permitted with a minimum cluster size of 500 square meters on a reticular sewer system or other means of waste disposal such as biodigester plants.
He added that there are some considerations to take note of before permitting a cluster house development such as waste management, environmental issues, and water supply among other essential services.
‘’There are over 150 applications towards cluster development from the period of 2010 to 2023 and we are hoping for a major increase of applications by year-end,” Nyabezi said.
Online Reporter