The Harare metropolitan provincial minister Charles Tavengwa has unveiled his blueprint to restore the local authority’s sunshine city status.
He says this will be done by resettling residents who are in unplanned settlements and issuing title deeds to homeowners, among other things.
Unplanned and chaotic urban settlements without proper sewers, water supply roads and social amenities and with building on land totally unsuitable for human habitation are a serious risk to public health.
Apparently, President Emmerson Mangagwa says the central Government will soon have to intervene in the at-risk local authorities.
The President said the affected and dysfunctional municipalities were costing Zimbabwe dearly and urgent action had to be taken to fix these settlements through regularisation and organising the basic services for the residents, along with applying the correct land-use plans to protect water sources and wetlands.
Writing in his weekly column in The Sunday Mail, President Mnangagwa also challenged the insurance sector to proffer to the Government ways to insure high-value and modern investments such as houses now being built in rural areas and growth points.
“All unplanned settlements need to be regularised after proper geo-spatial surveys and proper land-use plans which protect our delicate environment, principally our wetlands and water sources,” he said recently.
Zwnews
