GOVERNMENT is in the process of repealing the Town and Country Planning Act to address challenges faced in unplanned settlements in the country.
Minister of Local Government and Housing Eustackio Kazonga said yesterday that this is being done to deal with contradictions between the town and country planning Act and the Housing Act.
Dr Kazonga said this during a recording of the ‘Culture Remodelling’ television programme at the Ministry of Finance and National Planning under the theme Making it Happen: Local Government and Housing.
He said the contradiction has made it difficult for councils to provide services following the increase in unplanned settlements.
“In 2010 we have a number of programmes and if we start with physical planning, the first programme that we are embarking on is the repeal of the current Town and Country Planning Act. It has been overtaken by challenges that we are facing right now. We need to totally repeal that Act,” Dr Kazonga said.
He said work is going on to have the new act by the end of this year.
“When you look at the current Town and Planning Act and you look at the Housing Act, you will sometimes find some contradictions. Whereas something will be accepted as legal within the Housing Act, in the Town and Country Planning Act it will be illegal. So we need to harmonise these two pieces of legislation,” he said.
Dr Kazonga said Government has seen a number of challenges in unplanned settlements and that there is need to have specific clauses to tackle this aspect.
“The legal framework is part of what the physical planning is working on, but that is not all. We are also working on integrated development plans (IDPs) where we have a totality of these plans in terms of the scale, rate and quality of development put together in a consultative manner. These IDPs are being done for a number of towns in the country so that we have orderly development in the country. Development cannot just come up abruptly,” Dr Kazonga said.
He said currently Government is working on IDPs for Kapiri Mposhi, Lufwanyama, Samfya, Mazabuka, Choma, Luangwa, Mongu, Sesheke, Shangombo, Siavonga and Mambwe.
He said there is need to improve municipal infrastructure in the country, which he described as quite bad.
“Generally speaking, municipal infrastructure in the country is quite bad. Efforts are being made by Government to work on roads, markets and the drainage systems,” he said.
He said Government is also working on upgrading some unplanned settlements in the country.
“Government policy right now is that we do not want anymore of unplanned settlements. Let’s tackle the ones that are already in existence, no new ones. To upgrade settlements you are looking at the road network, the corresponding drainage systems, the water supply and sanitation facilities, street lighting and so on. All that is a totality of unplanned settlements upgrading,” he said.
Dr Kazonga said Government has made efforts to assist some councils to upgrade some of the unplanned settlements.
He said all local authorities were requested to submit to Government the list of unplanned settlements to determine which ones will be upgraded.
“But of course resources are not enough. What is important is to begin so that we can have specific compounds (townships) to be upgraded,” he said.
He said the current problem of floods in townships is a result of people building in areas not fit for human habitation.
He, however, said Government has scored some successes in water supply and sanitation within the Fifth National Development Plan.
He said 5,000 boreholes have been sunk in rural areas since 2006 and that Government is currently rehabilitating 400 boreholes.
He said this programme has increased access to clean water and sanitation in rural areas by about 1.3 million people.
He said the baseline in 2006 showed that only 37 percent of the population had access to clean water in rural areas compared to the current 50 percent.
“We are targeting that by 2015, 75 percent of the population will have access to clean water and sanitation. For sanitation in 2006 it was at 13 percent and we want to increase it to 60 percent under the Rural Water and Sanitation,” he said.
He said in urban areas Government has created 11 commercial water utilities to provide clean water to residents.
Dr Kazonga also said all councils in the country are up to date with statutory audits.
“All 72 councils have been audited for the year ended December 2008. People have the right to complain about audits in councils,” he said.
However, Dr Kazonga said Government has so far given the Local Authorities Superenuation Fund K37 billion to help in the payment of retirement packages for former employees in councils.
He also urged Zambians to internalise the ‘Make Zambia Clean’ campaign to reduce the prevalence of epidemics in the country.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
I the this doctor is not politiking. It shud be plans for people of Zambia not for party and its government. There is also lack of initiaves at local levels due political interfernce. So Zambians deserve sustained programmes.:-t:-t~X(~X(
Too late for that. im frm ngombe township, its shambles there. these policies should have been there long time. the population is growing. we need new houses, let the councils build houses and rent them this way they make money to maintain infrastructure.
Just politicking can you justify why council projects in Kabwata site & service Chalala were such a disgrace from a roads & infrastructure point of view when a private project by the Gaullun family in Great East Road, Ndeke Village & Chamba Valley was properly managed with proper graded gravel roads which can be easily tarred if the residents put their resources together? This is so embarrassing & a sham and talk like this is much more annoying than pleasing.
ABWENZI, you talk like a kid. You well know that people are not easy to control, especially when they are dealing with public land. They behave the same as you are thinking, because if its government land they feel they can do whatever they want. They will not wait for proper organisation.
The only one that succeaded is the PHI project.