Nation in desperate need of urban housing, minister says

With an average of seven out of 10 urban dwellers living in unplanned homes, Tanzania is undertaking a programme to survey and upgrade hundreds of thousands of plots in its major urban cities to improve human settlement, Lands Minister Gideon Cheyo said on Monday. "Generally the state of human settlements in Tanzania is poor and needs to be improved," Gideon Cheyo, he said in a statement marking the observance of World Habitat Day - 3 October. He said the upgrading programme was aimed at improving the living conditions for millions of urban residents living in squalid conditions. "On average about 60 percent to 70 percent of the urban residents live in unplanned areas, which lack basic services such as access roads, clean water, drainage and sanitation facilities," Cheyo said. He said that in most Tanzanian urban areas, only 74 percent of the people had access to clean water, while only 53 percent of their rural counterparts had access to this resource. Already, he added, about 34,300 plots had been surveyed and upgraded in the commercial city of Dar es Salaam and the lakeside city of Mwanza in the past three years. "This financial year [2005/2006], the programme will be scaled up to cover other major urban centres in the country," Cheyo said. However, he said the country's legal system undermined land development efforts as it failed to recognise property ownership in the so-called squatter areas. "We are in the process of formalisation of land [and] housing in unplanned areas," he said. "The aim of the programme is to officially recognise such property and finally create security of tenure. "Currently, about 219,000 out of 400,000 properties that were initially earmarked in Dar es Salaam have already been registered. The programme will soon be scaled up to other towns," he said. On water supply, he said the government was working in collaboration with foreign donors including the World Bank, the European Union and the African Development Bank as well as local NGOs to improve the situation. "While the government will concentrate on improving the infrastructure, we are also encouraging the private sector and other stakeholders to involve themselves in the provision of clean and safe water," Cheyo said. He underscored the importance of public's participation in delivery of water supply services by partly contributing to the costs, instead of waiting for the government to do everything. "It is important to note that the issue of human settlement development cannot be addressed by the government alone," he said. "We need to have strategies for enhancing efforts from individuals, communities and the nation as a whole."