Housing efforts 'a drop in the ocean'

As Burundians struggle to rebuild their war-torn nation, since the major peace accord was signed in Arusha in 2000, many have been invoking a local proverb. It roughly translates as: It is easy to light a fire and difficult to extinguish it. No one knows how long it will take for Burundi to recover from the civil war. But certain facts are clear. Currently, according to Burundi's national programme for the rehabilitation of war-affected, about 1.2 million people lack basic shelter. They are refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and single mothers whose husbands were killed during the war and who have been left to care for their children. As the average two- to three-room dwelling in Burundi is built to hold around five people, it is easy to calculate that almost 250,000 new homes are urgently needed. So far, almost none of those homes have been built. At various donor conferences on Burundi held in Brussels and Paris, donors pledged money for reconstruction, but they have yet to release the money. In January 2004, officials from the national programme, along with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), launched a new appeal in Geneva. This time donors pledged US $861 million but, so far, they have not given any of that money either. The reason may partly be that donors are reluctant to invest in a supposedly post-conflict environment where fighting takes place almost daily. In early October, Radio Burundi reported that 50 homes of the Batwa, a minority ethnic group, were burned down in the northern province of Kirundo. However, the worst affected area is the western province of Bujumbura Rural. The province surrounds the capital, Bujumbura. More than 70,000 homes are now needed in Bujumbura Rural, the acting country director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Ghislain Kikudji, told IRIN. "And as fighting continues, we can expect still more houses to be destroyed," Kikudji said. Still, many Burundians remain hopeful that the current three-year transitional process, due to end by 1 November, will bring lasting peace. Many are already making plans to restart their lives in Burundi. Thousands of refugees who have been fleeing to Tanzania since 1972 are now returning home. Frederic Bamvuginyumvira, the chairman of the National Commission for the Rehabilitation of War-Affected, known by its French acronym CNRS, said the government was taking a two-pronged approach. For those people who can return home, the government is looking to build and rehabilitate their homes. For people who cannot or will not return to their original homes, the government is creating new villages. An estimated 40,000 refugee families who fled to Tanzania in 1972 are now either landless or have lost their claim to land. Also, 30,000 newly displaced families are afraid to return home. Either because their neighbours who chased them out are still there or because the neighbours with whom they were friendly remained in exile. New communities The first step to building 250,000 homes is finding the land to put them on. This is not easy in a country with one of the highest population densities in Africa. But officials from the national commission say land is available. "Plots of land are being identified for the new villages. The challenge will be to get [various ethnic communities] to leave their [ethnic] enclaves and move to the new villages where they can live together," Bamvuginyumvira said. He added that the commission must ensure that the people who move into the new villages can survive. The land must be arable; the people must be able to access potable water, electricity and roads. But, most of all, disparate groups must be able to live together. The new villages must be places that foster reconciliation and forge true communities. The Model There is a model for Burundi's settlement plan. It is in a village called Kiremba in the northeastern province of Muyinga. There, people from dispersed areas and ethnic groups are living together. It is a new concept for Burundi. Kiremba has a village association through which people pool resources, labour and knowledge. With international funding they have built a primary school, a secondary school, a health centre and a market. Bamvuginyumvira, a native of a nearby village in the province, is in charge of organising the model village. The people living in the village have developed modern agricultural techniques and they have formed housing cooperatives and they are starting to build homes. The association has also received funding from Belgian groups for infrastructure and recently, Bamvuginyumvira got €12,500 ($15,361) to build the first 10 houses. The homes have not yet been completed, but UN Habitat officials are so pleased with progress in Kiremba that they decided to celebrate this year's World Habitat day in Burundi (on 4 October) in the village. What makes Kiremba so special is that the people there are prepared to integrate IDPs, refugees, demobilised soldiers and various vulnerable groups, including landless families and the Batwa into the community. The village is also to be ethnically mixed with Hutu and Tutsi families. Currently, many Hutus are living either in exile or in the hills; many Tutsi live in displaced camps. The plan The national resettlement plan will be modelled on Kiremba village. So far, the design for the actual houses has not been decided. Some families prefer a two-bedroom house with a big living room. But Bamvuginyumvira says he is proposing that the commission adopt a standard three-room structure made of storm-resistant mud and cement bricks, with roofs made of corrugated iron sheets or ceramic tiles. The government plans to build or rehabilitate 170,000 houses in three years, Bamvuginyumvira said. It will cost $200 million and families will have to contribute 150,000 francs ($150) to the cost of their homes. The money will be used to make bricks and other local building materials. It looks good on paper, but so far, the national commission does not have any money. The Burundi government had built some 30,000 homes from 1997 to 2002, but since then, its human settlement budget has evaporated. The commission had started to distribute corrugated roofing to families whose homes had been destroyed in Bujumbura and in other towns and villagers around including Kamesa, Gisyo, Kizingwe and Kajiji, Bamvuginyumvira said. He further said even that had to be suspended for lack of funds. NGOs filling the gap So far, the best hope for the million Burundians without adequate housing is with NGOs. The European Union is funding the Programme de Rehabilitation du Burundi (PREBU), which is rebuilding infrastructure and providing support to vulnerable groups trying to build and rehabilitate their homes. According to PREBU's March report, the organisation distributed roofing tiles, iron sheets and bricks, and is preparing to do more in the provinces of Bujumbura Rural, Rutana, Cankuzo and Ruyigi. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ARDA) has built 3,160 homes in Karuzi Province; 1,500 at Muyinga; 900 at Rutana; and is now building 2,400 at Makamba, Kikudji told IRIN. ADRA will also start building 5,000 homes in the province of Bujumbura Rural as soon as it is secure enough for them to start operating there. It says it can do it in one year. Kikudji said the homes it built were for refugees, IDPs and people whose homes were destroyed during the war. "The houses are made of brick and corrugated roofing," he said. "Each 35 square meter house costs about 350,000 francs ($350)". Another NGO, the African Housing Fund, has been providing shelter to poor families since the early 1990's, before the war started. But since 1997, it has focused on housing war-affected people. Some 5,211 family homes have been built in Gitega, Bujumbura and Kirundo, the national coordinator, Pia Ndayiragije, said. Unlike other human-settlement NGOs, people must repay the cost of the homes. "We want to make sure they take the house as their own property," Ndayiragije said. "They can pay little by little." The cost to homeowners ranges from 140,000 to 750,000 francs ($140 to $750). People unable to repay the money do not have to, he said. Others only have to pay half.