08 Oct 2014

Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Lebonaamang Mokalake says although Botswana does not have slums like other countries, it is not immune to the situation.

He was speaking at the commemoration of the World Habitat Day held in Matsiloje on October 6, under the theme: Voices Fom Slums.

He said although there were no slum settlements, some households lived under slum conditions, a fact that he said was evident in former squatter settlements in the urban areas. Mr Mokalake said government had since made efforts to upgrade some of the areas in former squatter settlement to enable them to have basic amenities.

“Priority has been given to the provision of water, sewerage services, electricity, road infrastructure, street lighting and issuing land certificates, leases and title deeds to secure ownership to property,” he said.

He noted that slums came about because of a number of factors that included rapid-urban migration, increasing urban poverty and inequality, lack of proactive planning, land management and insecure tenure.

He said it had been observed that sustainable solutions to the slum problem could only be achieved if governments, international aid agencies and the civil society organisations engaged slum dwellers and agreed with them on a common approach to improving their living conditions.

“Slum dwellers have aspirations on the future of the environs and the extent to which they can be involved to improve the quality of their living conditions and they also have hope for their children’s better future,” he said.

He said slum dwellers desired to lead dignified lives, need decent shelter, privacy, clean environment as well as adequate sanitation facilities. The minister noted that according to the 2011 Population and Housing census about 25 per cent of households lived in one roomed houses and shacks.

He said the housing conditions posed a great risk to their inhabitants as they could not withstand natural disasters such as heavy rainstorms and winds. Mr Mokalake said in the past the North East district had incidences of households affected by natural disasters because of durability of building materials.

Giving an overview of the North East District, the deputy chairperson of the council, Ms Flora Mpetsane said the eastern part of the district was prone to floods which most of the time affect the disadvantaged members of the community.

She said the floods destroy people’s houses especially mud built leaving people without proper shelter and exposing them to harsh conditions. Ms Mpetsane however, said since 2009 the district had undertaken 181 Turnkey projects to the tune of P11 380 000 and 34 houses under SHHA had been carried out by the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC).

Under the home improvement programme, Ms Mpetsane said since 2008, a total of 355 houses were funded at the tune of P2 533 500.00. She further said under the Presidential Housing Appeal, 27 people benefited. Ends