CLEAN LAND MESS

GOVERNMENT must quickly halt the wanton illegal land allocation and encroachments and save the country from losing shape and sanity with which it is associated. The media is everyday awash with stories on land-grabbing, encroachments and other forms of illegal land demarcations. Some people have even dared nature, going to an extent of erecting houses on river banks and road reserves. In worst scenarios, some “developers” have erected boundary walls and houses on roads, thereby distorting plans in many settlements. Play-parks, football grounds and school premises have been invaded with impunity, especially in Lusaka which has witnessed a population boom. The case of Munali school premises in Lusaka makes sad reading so is the case of Kafubu River banks in Ndola where houses have been erected right at the foot of the water body, adjacent to the Ndola Golf Club. The Dola Hill area has been mired in controversy, with multiple allocations; one plot would be owned by three “successful” applicants, all in possession of offer letters from the local authority. As if that is not enough, residents have uprooted the rail line and transformed it into a road, which is now usable even by Ndola City Council vehicles. What lawlessness! In Kitwe, lawlessness has been extended to the ZNBC transmitters and the dambo area of Kitwe stream in Parklands off Freedom Avenue. The entire dambo area is replete with both commercial and residential properties while Arthur Davies Stadium in Ndeke Township has been dwarfed by residential houses all around it. A number of schools have lost their play grounds, hosting houses constructed haphazardly. The disaster is that in a neighbourhood, boreholes would be sunk next to septic tanks only separated by a boundary wall. Small wonder cholera was difficult to control in Lusaka last year! Ground water contamination takes place because of the seepage from the sanitary soakways into boreholes or wells. Houses have been erected on service lines for water utility companies and on communication infrastructure. The jig-saw puzzle which needs to be busted is how these “developers” get valid documents such as building permits and offer letters, worse still Zesco even extends electricity lines to these illegal structures. Government must thus bring sanity to local authorities that have been at the centre of all these illegal undertakings. Local Government Minister, Charles Banda, and his Permanent Secretary, Ed Chomba, and their technocrats have a mammoth task. The Ministry of Lands too needs to be checked because illegal structures have been issued with certificates of title. The planning department in local authorities must be rejuvenated so that they are able to halt illegal constructions in initial stages as opposed to moving bull-dozers to sites to knock down complete mansions. Councillors should not at any one time be allowed to get involved in land allocation because it is not their mandate. An aggressive education campaign must be mounted in all parts of the country, especially the urban setting. The problem is two-fold; some people are ignorant of land acquisition procedures while others are alive to legal requirements but abrogate the law with impunity. Government must act quickly because the problem could degenerate into a national disaster.