19 Sep 2016

 The government has made progress in ensuring that residential, commercial and industrial lands across the country are provided with basic amenities.

Speaking in an interview on September 13, Mr Kaboyamodimo Raitoko, the director, technical services in the Ministry of Lands and Housing (MLH) says his ministry has an ambitious plan of servicing 37 000 plots across the country, and that progress has been made in this regard.

“Land servicing is an expensive and dense exercise, with P962 million, just under a billion already spent on just under 10 000 plots. It involves the surveying of such land, the environmental assessment, engineering design, layout, and then the construction stage,” he said.

The services provided, portable water, sewer lines and sewerage ponds, roads - mostly tarred, but at times paved in certain areas where funds were not permitting - storm water drainage and electric lines, with street lighting factored in. This allows for virgin land to be inhabited by households and industries.

“The lack of land services is a challenge we address throughout the country. While the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development works on upgrading existing infrastructure as was the case in areas such as Old Naledi in Gaborone, the MLH services virgin land, in both state land of urban areas and tribal land governed by land boards,” Mr Raitoko said.

After the old Ministry of Local Government, Lands and Housing was devolved into two ministries, the MLH Department of Technical Services oversaw the servicing of an initial 10 000 plots in Gaborone, Lobatse, Kasane as well as Gerald Estates in Francistown.

“Due to the high cost and extensive planning and execution land servicing requires, we had a backlog from the ninth National Development Plan (NDP 9) and as such some projects had to be transferred to NDP 10,” he said.

Mr Raitoko said they were currently working on four full servicing projects in Palapye, Metsimotlhabe, Sowa and Kasane, with other full servicing projects due to be implemented in Palapye, Ghanzi, Francistown, Tsolamosese, Maun, Mogoditshane and Mmopane.

He further said that through the government’s Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), they have managed to engage in peripheral land servicing, which involves the minimal servicing of land across the country.

“We have also been working on the Glenn Valley to Phakalane road, and a new road in Francistown that will allow those who want to go to places such as Maun to bypass the city centre and avoid traffic,” Mr Raitoko said.

He said through ESP, the MLH land servicing had created 602 jobs as at mid September 2016, with more due to be created. Mr Raitoko said the mostly temporary construction jobs employed 507 males and 92 females, with 332 of the full complement being youth. ENDS