TOWN planning is critical to improving the quality of life for residents by creating attractive and functional public spaces. This is also by guiding the development of buildings and other structures to ensure they are well-designed and integrated into the surrounding environment.
Town planning is a complex and dynamic process which involves balancing the needs of communities, environment and economy to create liveable and sustainable communities.
Planners play a crucial role in guiding the physical and social development of cities, towns and rural areas and in ensuring that development is carried out in a responsible and sustainable way.
The absence of town planning, as was witnessed in the previous administration, has long-term dire consequences including high disease burdens as manifested by the cholera outbreak among other consequences of haphazard development, and as the maxim goes: “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.
In view of this backdrop and in the wake of the cholera outbreak, we welcome and support the statement by Kitwe alderman Patrick Tembo, who says the outbreak of cholera in some cities and towns in the country is an opportunity for councils to reconsider town planning regulations.
This is to ensure strict adherence to the development guidelines in towns and cities unlike what was witnessed in previous administrations.
Mr Tembo, who was first elected as a councillor in Kitwe in 1992 and served for 14 years, observes that citizens over the years became accustomed to building structures illegally, which were later regularised.
It is also regrettable that some people have built structures on top of critical infrastructure such as sewer lines and drainages, thereby causing floods and exposing others to diseases due to failure to respect town planning regulations.
Others have built structures in flood-prone areas among other environmentally unsuitable places where pit-latrines are also built and overflow during the rainy season and also contaminate water in the shallow wells.
This also renders force of urgency to President Hakainde Hichilema’s directive that all shallow wells used as sources of drinking water in Lusaka and other urban areas be buried to avert cholera expeditiously.
It is clear that the New Dawn administration has a mammoth task to correct the many wrongs which were committed previously as demonstrated by some decisive actions taken by President Hichilema to create order in society, which is laudable.
The prevailing cholera situation is indeed an opportunity to, among others, reconsider town planning regulations and ensure strict enforcement of the guidelines.
“The problem is that for a long time, there has been no political will to sort out this problem [of disregarding town planning regulations] once and for all,” Mr Tembo observed.
There is, therefore, need to invest in unplanned settlements by providing them with proper sanitation facilities since some of the structures, especially houses, cannot be demolished.
The mushrooming of unplanned illegal settlements as witnessed previously should be prevented and councils are key to achieving this as there is political will now to enable them to stop the vice.
Local authorities are now empowered with the clout to regulate buildings in their areas of jurisdictions by taming politically aligned people who attempt to influence the decisions of councils.
We also agree with Mr Tembo that councils should also be given adequate resources to buy equipment for solid waste management in the peri-urban areas among other unplanned settlements to effectively help prevent water-borne diseases.
Local authorities should, therefore, ride on the political will of the New Dawn administration, which has resolved to stop cadreism among other unorthodox political dynamics which promote disorderliness and lawlessness in communities.
Needless to say, local authorities should also ensure CDF is utilised to address challenges of unplanned settlements in peri-urban areas.
Councils should also capacitate their city and town planning departments to ensure that they strictly monitor and enforce the guidelines to create better and healthy living environments to prevent diseases like cholera.
Councils should leverage political will to plan
TOWN planning is critical to improving the quality of life for residents by creating attractive and functional public spaces. This is also by guiding the development of buildings and other structures to ensure they are well-designed and integrated into the surrounding environment.
Town planning is a complex and dynamic process which involves balancing the needs of communities, environment and economy to create liveable and sustainable communities.
Planners play a crucial role in guiding the physical and social development of cities, towns and rural areas and in ensuring that development is carried out in a responsible and sustainable way.
The absence of town planning, as was witnessed in the previous administration, has long-term dire consequences including high disease burdens as manifested by the cholera outbreak among other consequences of haphazard development, and as the maxim goes: “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.
In view of this backdrop and in the wake of the cholera outbreak, we welcome and support the statement by Kitwe alderman Patrick Tembo, who says the outbreak of cholera in some cities and towns in the country is an opportunity for councils to reconsider town planning regulations.
This is to ensure strict adherence to the development guidelines in towns and cities unlike what was witnessed in previous administrations.
Mr Tembo, who was first elected as a councillor in Kitwe in 1992 and served for 14 years, observes that citizens over the years became accustomed to building structures illegally, which were later regularised.
It is also regrettable that some people have built structures on top of critical infrastructure such as sewer lines and drainages, thereby causing floods and exposing others to diseases due to failure to respect town planning regulations.
Others have built structures in flood-prone areas among other environmentally unsuitable places where pit-latrines are also built and overflow during the rainy season and also contaminate water in the shallow wells.
This also renders force of urgency to President Hakainde Hichilema’s directive that all shallow wells used as sources of drinking water in Lusaka and other urban areas be buried to avert cholera expeditiously.
It is clear that the New Dawn administration has a mammoth task to correct the many wrongs which were committed previously as demonstrated by some decisive actions taken by President Hichilema to create order in society, which is laudable.
The prevailing cholera situation is indeed an opportunity to, among others, reconsider town planning regulations and ensure strict enforcement of the guidelines.
“The problem is that for a long time, there has been no political will to sort out this problem [of disregarding town planning regulations] once and for all,” Mr Tembo observed.
There is, therefore, need to invest in unplanned settlements by providing them with proper sanitation facilities since some of the structures, especially houses, cannot be demolished.
The mushrooming of unplanned illegal settlements as witnessed previously should be prevented and councils are key to achieving this as there is political will now to enable them to stop the vice.
Local authorities are now empowered with the clout to regulate buildings in their areas of jurisdictions by taming politically aligned people who attempt to influence the decisions of councils.
We also agree with Mr Tembo that councils should also be given adequate resources to buy equipment for solid waste management in the peri-urban areas among other unplanned settlements to effectively help prevent water-borne diseases.
Local authorities should, therefore, ride on the political will of the New Dawn administration, which has resolved to stop cadreism among other unorthodox political dynamics which promote disorderliness and lawlessness in communities.
Needless to say, local authorities should also ensure CDF is utilised to address challenges of unplanned settlements in peri-urban areas.
Councils should also capacitate their city and town planning departments to ensure that they strictly monitor and enforce the guidelines to create better and healthy living environments to prevent diseases like cholera.