Country facing huge urban population boom

Ethiopia is facing a massive urban population explosion as families move from rural areas to cities. The country, which is reeling from a severe drought and food crisis, is facing one of the highest migrations from villages to cities in Africa. The scale of the population boom within towns and cities emerged at a conference on regional and urban planning and landscape architecture in Addis Ababa. Berhanu Tamrat, Minister of State in the ministry of federal affairs, said a federal urban planning law would ensure “structured and organised” development. He told German and Ethiopian experts at the conference that the government was drawing up a draft law on a federal urban planning law. Urban population growth in Ethiopia is increasing at around six percent a year, compared to other sub-Saharan countries where growth rates are rising by four percent. German Ambassador Helga Strachwitz said that Ethiopia faces major challenges as the boom in the numbers moving to urban areas increases. The ambassador said that “increased pressures” on the country’s already stretched infrastructure would rise as more people move into cities. Already the population in the capital is in excess of four million people, making it one of the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa.