New human settlement policy on cards
GOVERNMENT is drafting a new human settlement policy that is expected to address the already existing one’s shortcomings and challenges of spatial, economic, social and environmental nature affecting human settlements in the country.
Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Monica Mutsvangwa, said this at a workshop on human settlement policy formulation held in Mutare last Friday.
She was represented by administrative officer in the office of the public administrator, Mrs Tendai Sithole. Minister Mutsvangwa said the new settlement policy was meant to address gaps in the existing national housing policy, which came into being in 2012.
“The need to reconfigure the present National Housing Policy through crafting a comprehensive human settlement policy document is necessitated by the noted policy gaps, which need to be plugged. Government is keen to develop a human settlement policy because settlements are facing an array of challenges,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said chief among the identified gaps was the need to cater for various facets of the socio-economic, technological and political environmental pillars that form the backbone of a modern human settlement or community. She explained that the existing housing policy was porous as it trivialised other requisite ancillary services such as bulk infrastructure for sewer, water, smart energy, optic fibre network, education, health and employment among other amenities.
Minster Mutsvangwa also criticised the current housing policy for using a fragmented approach, which had seen settlements being established and occupied without portable facilities and other social amenities.
“Current housing development is premised on an incremental approach where development of offsite and onsite infrastructure is done in phases, for instance, connecting water supply systems ahead of sewer systems or opening gravel and tarred roads later. This is responsible for the establishment of settlements such as Gimboki South in Mutare and Melfort near Ruwa where there are huge settlements without portable sanitation facilities and other social amenities,” she said.
She added that the system had created settlements, which were not sustainable as they had to rely on other nearby settlements for basic services.
She described the workshop in Manicaland as part of a nationwide consultation process designed to solicit for broader views and perspectives on the best possible way forward.
She also revealed that the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing had already set the ball rolling in soliciting for broader views and perspectives on the best way possible adding that the policy was meant to ensure that human settlements were standardised, sustainable and inclusive.