Government implements low-cost housing for returnees

With up to four million of its citizens living as refugees in neighbouring countries soon after the 1994 genocide, the government of Rwanda has introduced a low-cost housing scheme, known locally as "Imidugudu", to resettle thousands of people who returned after the killings. So far, the government has constructed at least 300,000 of these mud-bricked homes under the Imidigudu initiative, although it is still grappling with the impact of the genocide on human settlement. At least one million refugees had returned to Rwanda by the end of 1994. Homes were burnt down during the 100-day genocide, leaving the country with a severe housing problem. And, as hundreds of thousands of Rwandans returned home in the years following the killings, the government had to cater to their housing needs in urban and rural areas. Among the returnees were "old" groups of refugees, most of whom had spent 35 years in exile in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Uganda, as well as those who had fled at the height of the genocide. "Receiving both groups of new and old refugees in a very short period, reconstructing destroyed houses and stabilising the population displaced by the war were very big challenges," Jean Damascene Ntawukuliryayo, the minister for infrastructure, told IRIN on Monday. Anastasia Kabanyana, 54, one of the beneficiaries of the Imidugudu housing, fled to the DRC during the genocide. Several members of her family died during the violence. When she returned with her only remaining daughter months later, she found her home burnt down. She first settled for about a year in a makeshift structure of plastic sheeting provided by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "It was tough," Kabanyana said. She was seated outside her three-roomed home on a hilltop village, 15 km from the capital, Kigali. Hers is one of 300 houses built in Kabuga sector to resettle the returnees. "We had spent three months under a similar [plastic] sheeting in Congo and returned home hoping to find our house but, sadly, it was no more," she told IRIN. Imidugudu settlements The Rwandan government introduced the national human settlement policy, which came to be known as Imidugudu, in December 1996. Since the policy focused on group settlement the government hoped to solve the problem of land scarcity at the same time. This policy targeted the establishment of specific residential areas in each village in efforts to enhance proper land utilisation and the provision of basic services.

Anastasia Kabanyana, 54, sits outside her "Imidugudu" home in Kabuga sector, 15 km from the Rwandan capital, Kigali. She moved into the home in 1996.

With the help of UN agencies such as UNHCR and several international NGOs, the government then began building homes for the hundreds of thousands of returnees across the country. These Imidugudu settlements were mainly built in the rural areas to encourage development in these locations. "The concept of Imidugudu was seen to offer many advantages to the population," Ntawukuliryayo told IRIN. "The fact that people would be concentrated, living in defined areas, would make it much easier and more efficient for the government to provide social and economic services to the population." Under this programme, the government focused on the provision of services such as health, education, water and sanitation. Ntawukuliryayo said the government also aimed at providing roads and other communication networks, market access and agricultural extension services. Communal living The government considered the Imidugudu most suitable for people in rural areas because the returnees would be able to mobilise self-defence units against gangs of militiamen that still roamed the countryside. The militia, known as Interahamwe, have largely been accused of perpetrating the genocide. According to Ntawukuliryayo, the vulnerable survivors of the genocide, many of them widows and orphans, preferred to live in communities. "The communities could provide mutual support and foster trust," he told IRIN. However, although more than one million people had been placed in the Imidugudu settlements, a national survey conducted in September 1999 by the Information Management Unit of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) found that there were some 370,000 vulnerable families living under plastic sheeting in damaged shelters and others were temporarily occupying other people's homes. The figure of those living under these conditions currently is 180,000, according to government statistics. Although the Imidugudu scheme is in its eighth year, many donors remain sceptical about the programme; citing reports of "coerced" relocations, the lack of popular participation in the process of home design, plot-size, decision-making and other aspects of planning and resettlement-policy implementation. "The government did not seek the opinion of the local population before embarking on this project and as a result, many of the present occupants were forced into these group settlements," a diplomat in Kigali, who requested anonymity, told IRIN. "The result was a lack of ownership for some people who are expected to live in the Imidugudu," Cassien Ngaboyisonga, the director of housing in the Ministry of Infrastructure, said. Many who were formed into these Imidugudu felt the houses were not really theirs and, as a result, many did not take good care of the houses. "There was also great disparities of access to social services for people living in Imidugudu or in rural areas generally," he added. For example, in Mutara Province people walk at least 35 km to the nearest health centre while some children in the province of Kibungo live 20 km from the nearest school. In most Imidugudu schemes, access to clean water remains difficult, as is access to facilities such as dispensaries, schools and toilets. Shortcomings Homes built under the Imidugudu initiative had several disadvantages, the most pronounced of these being that they were built hastily within the country's emergency phase. According to Ngaboyisonga, the emergency phase called for the urgent resettlement of thousands of the returnees and displaced persons. This led to the development of many sites by numerous organisations without adherence to clearly defined building standards. For example, under Imidugudu, the size of the land available per household is less than one hectare and the space for agricultural activities is about half an hectare. "The biggest problem we have at the moment is lack of land for cultivation," Kabanyana, a resident in one of the Imidugudu, said. "We are forced to move kilometres away to access land for cultivation. This becomes difficult for a person my age." Most of the Imidugudu homes built during the emergency period lack proper finishing such as plumbing and strong roofing. The homeowners have to undertake these activities, yet most live below the poverty line of $1 a day. In some cases, areas of flat land were chosen, making housing construction easier, but the land was often fertile agricultural land, which forced those affected to use less fertile hill slopes for cultivation. This led to low crop yields and environmental degradation. New settlement law

Houses built under the Rwandan housing scheme known as Imidugudu. Most of the homes were built for thousands of refugees who returned after the 1994 genocide

The government recently updated its settlement policy, specifying where houses can be built, how many units they should contain, the size of the houses, the location of recreational centres and other social services in the Imidugudu. The new policy is in line with the government's overall approach to structural reforms of human settlement related to the land tenure system and environment. Officials say the new policy aims at the development of sustainable human settlements through improved land management, measures for poverty reduction, measures against hunger and measures to protect the environment. A draft law on the land and housing policy bill is expected to be passed by parliament soon. It focuses on improving and redesigning settlement patterns in urban and rural areas. "[The policy aims at] good control and good management of settlement and urban development by opening up previously developed and improved areas and stopping anarchical construction of buildings and the extension of unplanned residential areas," Ntawukuliryayo, who is in charge of the ministry drafting the bill, said. The new resettlement policy is expected to focus on finding adequate housing for a category of households such as the homeless, often poor and vulnerable widows, orphans and persons with disabilities. "The new settlement policy also aims at bringing all the homes in the Imidugudu programme to an acceptable level in terms of housing and access to social and economic services," Ntawukuliryayo said. He maintains that Imidigudu remains the only alternative for Rwanda, given its small size and its increasing population. "Despite some shortcomings in implementing this policy, the government still firmly believes that Imidugudu represents the only feasible alternative to Rwanda's land population equation for the foreseeable future," Ntawukuliryayo said. Based on the participation of the local communities, site selection and construction for Imidugudu will follow specific standards. These include specifications such as maximum size of the house, which should be no less than 400-600 square metres; minimum size of a house, which should be 42 square metres; mud blocks, which will be used for home construction instead of wooden poles in order to protect forests; blocks of grouped houses, which should contain no more than 20 plots (to give enough space for agriculture and other social services and also ease congestion); agricultural or mixed farming fields, which should be no farther than 2-3 km from the site; and there must be proximity to basic services, either already in existence, or the ready potential for those services to be provided. According to Ngaboyisonga, sites where group settlement is to be carried out would be determined by grassroots leaders and approved by district councils in accordance with the district development plan. Each site where group settlement shall be established shall indicate the surface area, the rough boundaries and the existence of a development plan. "Our target is to have all Rwandans living in these Imidugudu in urban areas or the rural settings," Ngaboyisonga said. "We hope this will be a voluntary process whereby people will move slowly into the newly established villages."