Minister of State in the Vice President's Office responsible for Union Affairs and Environment, January Makamba
It has also announced that it will ‘assist’ the demolition victims who have legal papers and title deeds for their properties. Among other forms of assistance, the government has pledged to ensure that victim children of the demolition resume school later this week along with their colleagues across the country.
Minister of State in the Vice President's Office responsible for Union Affairs and Environment, January Makamba, said yesterday that implementation of public park project will be in phases.
Makamba made the statement during his tour at the Msimbazi valley and other places that have been earmarked for demolition under the ongoing nationwide demolition campaign of structures and houses constructed in open spaces or close to water sources.
Noting that funds for the clearance project have been issued by World Bank to the tune of 100bn/-, the minister said the cleanup is meant to control outbreak of diseases like cholera that has plagued most of the nation over the last few months.
He said following complaints from victims and the general public over the demolition exercise, a special desk has been set at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development to receive and work on queries of the victims.
“We are working on your queries…the government is looking into emergency measures to ensure that all children whose parents’ houses have been demolished attend classes when schools re-opens later this week” he reassured the victims.
According to the Minister, Msimbazi creek was first declared a hazardous area during the colonial era in 1949. He said it was re-announced and confirmed to be unfit for human settlement in 1979 before disasters and floods killed 49 people in 2011.
According to the Acting Director of Rural and Town Planning at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Prof John Lupala the lifeline of a city master plan is only 20 years and that the initial city master plan expired in 1999.
He said during the past 16 years, Dar es Salaam has been operating without a settlement plan with the expired city plan having served as of 1979.
He said upon expiry of the Dar es Salaam master plan in 1999, the city council came up with a Strategic Urban Development Plan in 2002, but it was not approved by the ministry to be used as a city master plan.
In November last year many Dar es Salaam residents were left homeless after the ministries of Lands and Environment, in collaboration with Kinondoni Municipal Council, demolished hundreds of homes illegally put up in the floods-prone Msimbazi valley.
The government has declared a moratorium of the demolitions until next month when the exercise is to resume in the valley stretching from Kinondoni municipality to Pugu, where more than 8,000 houses are set to be demolished.
The exercise will also see structures illegally constructed in open spaces or close to water sources or the sea shore in Mwenge, Kinondoni Biafra and Sinza suburbs pulled down.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN