Housing crisis
Housing crisisBy Editor
Wednesday September 19, 2007 [04:00]
Zambia is at the crossroads on the housing issue. The observations made by Zambia Congress of Trade Unions president Leonard Hikaumba concerning the housing problem in Zambia deserve serious consideration. The problem of housing in Zambia is very serious. And the fast rate of urbanisation is worsening the situation.
Rural poverty is every day forcing more and more people to move to urban areas where they think life may be much easier. And government cannot solve the problem with brutal forced evictions that violate human rights, as we have seen in Angola, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
The government needs to work with other stakeholders to ensure that every one of our people can enjoy their right to adequate housing.
There is need for the government to show commitment to addressing the housing crisis in our country. Our government doesn't seem to have the commitment of the mid 1960s and early 1970s in trying to tackle the housing problem.
To counter the ever-increasing population, Zambia embarked on several projects to build low-cost houses immediately after independence. In Lusaka, the capital city, the council constructed houses in Chelston, Kabwata and Chilenje.
In addition, the central government encouraged self-help housing projects in Chibolya and New Kanyama. Lusaka started as a small settlement for white settlers in the early 1900s when Northern Rhodesia - now Zambia - was under British rule.
The city's population is now approaching two million, yet it was planned for 20,000 white settlers. Africans were restricted from coming to Lusaka from other parts of the country and only a few who worked as servants for the whites lived in temporary huts in Old Kamwala and Old Chilenje.
After Zambia attained political independence in October 1964, restrictions on movements of Africans to Lusaka were dropped, resulting in the steady increase in its population. In 1970 Lusaka had a population of 262,000; in 1980 it had 538,469 people and by the time the 2000 census of population and housing by the Central Statistical Office was conducted, the city's population had shot to 1,103,413.
The reality is that there is widespread poverty and inequality in our cities, with millions of our people living without adequate basic services. Financing shelter is important if we are to secure environmental sustainability, economic prosperity and social equality.
However, there is little likelihood that conventional sources of funds will be available for investment on the scale needed to meet the projected demand for urban infrastructure and housing.
But despite considerable effort to encourage urban and infrastructure policy reform and capacity building, there's no sustained large-scale impact on the housing sector and the provision of urban infrastructure.
There's need for us as a nation to come up with innovative ways of encouraging greater investment in housing, especially for the urban poor. It is unacceptable for over 50 per cent of Zambians in urban areas to be without shelter. And what is even more unacceptable is that practically nothing seems to be done in terms of availing these people with shelter - such an important basic need.
And for the majority of our country's poor, decent shelter remains a luxury. Currently, a great majority of our people are either homeless or live in very poor housing characterised by overcrowding and inadequate accompanying infrastructure services. This has a negative impact on their health and productivity.
In most cases these poor people lack secure land tenure, hence are vulnerable to eviction wherever they attempt to settle. And it seems our government, facing severe resource constraints, has long given up on providing our people with shelter.
Most of our urban towns are simply unprepared to accommodate additional accommodation and this is leading to a further mushrooming of squatter settlements of high densities and inadequate or no services.
And when one looks at some of these settlements, it is frightening to see how people live. The sanitation is extremely poor.
In the heart of Lusaka, we have so many settlements with pit latrines and next to them open water wells. How can cholera, dysentery and other water-borne diseases be avoided under these conditions?
The housing problem will not go away on its own. The government has a duty to ensure that every citizen has a roof over their heads. It is the duty of the government to address this problem. The private sector or market forces will not solve this problem without the government taking a leading role and providing a formula.
If the government cannot directly address this problem, then it must be able to mobilise sufficient amounts of private capital. But to be able to do this, the government must first recognise the problem of inadequate housing and place it high among its priorities.
But as things stand today, housing does not seem to be a priority of our government and of our politicians in general. We are not saying the government should find money, build houses and dish them out for nothing.
The government has a duty to provide housing to our people and our people are entitled to such services. But we cannot build an economy or society purely on the basis of entitlements. People have to make a contribution.
They have to have a sense of ownership, which they don't get from being given rented accommodation which they don't own, don't have a stake in and haven't helped build.
But it is the duty of our government to organise our people and help them help themselves.
We fully appreciate that this is not a small or simple problem but we cannot throw our hands in the air and proclaim that there is nothing we can do, the problem is beyond us. We have to confront this problem and find solutions to it.
It is our collective duty to give millions of Zambians an essential piece of dignity in their lives - the dignity that comes from having a solid roof over one's head, running water and other services in an established community.
Our efforts towards poverty alleviation will yield minimal results unless immediate measures are taken to address the issue of housing, especially in our urban areas.
posted by MrK @ 3:53 AM
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