When the Addis Ababa City Administration embarked on launching a new genre of shared resident housing project a.k.a Condominium Houses in 2004, residents were not overwhelmed at first. This might have caught the municipality by surprise; as chronic shortage of resident houses has been a major socio-economic problem in the capital. Perhaps, this was because of the public reproach and lack of trust in the ruling party that remained latent for years. (This was later proved to be true in the 2005 national election when EPRDF was defeated in the capital).
Therefore, the news was not considered as a solemn move that was entrusted to solve housing problem. Hence, they preferred to remain aloof even if no fee was required to register. Others who actually registered were apathetic and not convinced by the candor. As government was not taken as largesse, the housing issue was taken as attempt to win the heart of the residents in the election scheduled to be held after a year in 2005.I believe there was some grain of truth in their suspicion. That makes sense when you try to look back how condominiums really served as flagship propaganda of development during campaigns of subsequent elections.
Through time, however, residents started to show interest; as they had no any other choice. After all, there is nothing to lose from trying. In principle, the project was a very important and one of the most praiseworthy undertakings severs planed by the municipality. In practice, however, it ended up simply being waste of resources due to rampant corruption and lack of good governance like what had been witnessed in other development projects. Little has it contributed to curbing housing shortage in the city. Moreover, it was not the majority of the poor who actually benefited from the project in all these years.
In this short article, major problems witnessed in the project beginning from planning, design, allocation of land and site selection, accessibility in terms of meeting objective, and transferring process will be highlighted. The writer believes that they could serve as stepping stones for future projects.
From the outset, the project was launched out of the blue. They were needed to be realized quickly for some reasons. No ample time was taken to prepare a well tailored plan of action. In 2004, Addis Ababa Housing project office was established by proclamation; and registration of incumbents started in that same years. It is possible to witness the hurry and awkwardness; especially considering the significance of the project and its vital impact of ensuring societal welfare. The mission of the project office was upright that underscores fair distribution of houses to all residents. In reality, however, fairness was a far cry.
Put in a nutshell, the anticipated political benefit harnessed the need to conduct a thorough scientific research first and prepare project proposal accordingly. It was announced way before the nuts and bolts were properly apprehended by the municipality. Studies could have been started three or four years earlier so that the proposal could be more comprehensive to avoid dilemmas for basic questions like how many of the residents do not have their houses? What are the ranges of the age groups? How many of them are in perilous situation? What is the annual growth rate for housing in the city? How much money is required? How is the government planning to finance them? inter alia.
As a result, what has been implemented in the last sixteen years could not curb one third of the demand. For that matter, it is easy to tell the problem aggravated more during those periods. With that pace of construction, additional 20 years are needed to satisfy the demands of those who were previously registered and queuing. This doesn’t include emerging demands created every year following the growth of population. True, government budget is limited. Yet, had the project been carefully designed beforehand, alternative mechanisms regarding financial funding could have been stipulated in the proposal.
The other major err testified was in the reckless selection of project sites for the projects. Many of them were pushed to the outskirts; which has posed serious border related quandaries with Oromia State Government. Unless it was due to mismanagement, Addis Ababa has vast area of land that can accommodate houses for all of its residents. However, many of the city’s land were leased and sold to investors by evacuating residents under development reasons. No one gave attention to the fate of the residents that were evacuated. This bold move has resulted in sever societal crises among the residents. It is recalled that the former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi once blatantly said, “anyone who has no financial strength to construct in the capital can go to Bureau and reside there.’ He was in fact trying to crack a joke at the time; yet had a message to confer.
Even those condominiums that were built in the heart of the city were just a waste of resources. Each of them could have been built with 12 or 15 storey buildings instead of just four. Even skyscrapers having thirty or more storey houses can be erected. Had it been properly planed, they would be built in a way that can accommodate plenty of households in a building. And aesthetically, they are poorly designed as well. What has been witnessed was demolishing houses of the poor and selling their lands with exorbitant price to investors without remorse. Nobody cared for the whereabouts of the residents whose houses were demolished for ‘development purposes’. Evacuation of the residents had malicious motive of revenge; especially after the ruling party was heavily defeat in Addis Ababa during the 2005 election.
Anyways, Addis Ababa could have grown vertically, instead of dilating the city horizontally. Many farmers who resided in the out skirt of Addis Ababa were forced to evacuate as a result of such an unjustified expansion. This created havoc and has remained to be a bone of contention between the city’ administration and the neighboring Oromia Regional State until recently.
With regards to maintaining project periods, poor implementation was noticed in almost all of the project sites. Houses were not transferred timely. The underlying reasons begin from lack of transparency in the bidding process, increasing cost of construction material that occur due to failure to finish projects in time, poor monitoring and evaluation of the projects. The most serious bottleneck to all these failures was perhaps, the prevalence of rampant corruption. Exaggerated delay to transfer houses even after the draw was made and winners identified, has been always persisting. This is exasperating to winners; not to mention its impact in filling the huge gap between supply and demand.
Last but not least, the lottery process and mechanism of transferring houses was highly favored and biased which gave priority to politically loyal incumbents. Hence, the majority of the needy were denied of the benefits of having one, unless miraculously appeared to be lucky in the draw. This was a bitter truth well known by the public. EPRDF was famous for its coercive approach-my way or the hard way. True, this is just a lay observation and an overview. Professional study is required to pinpoint each and every problem that prevailed in the overall housing development projects. A clear understanding of these problems could help devise a more comprehensive and public-oriented plan of action for future condominium projects. As the saying goes, a problem were identified (understood), is half-solved.
The city administration should devise a more comprehensive policy and strategies that may incorporate joint ventures developments with reputed foreign construction companies. An exhaustive plan based on adequate research should also be prepared to fill any gap of financial constraints and enhance efficiency and effectiveness in utilization of resources. Today, we have a public-centered Political system and rectitude governance that is poised to ensure transparency in bidding, evaluation and monitoring of projects at its fullest. Corruption should be getting rid of once and for all.
Before summing up, I would like to put a remark on the lottery process. How fair would it be, if parents having children and living in a rented house are given equal chance; say with a young man who lives in his parent’s house? Whose problem is more precarious? There has to be some mechanism to prioritize families from singles or bachelors; exactly like the better opportunities given to people with disabilities, women and government employees. In fact, such arrangements may pave way for corrupt systems, and hence should be handled carefully. Priority is raised as a temporary solution of soothing the demand. However, a lasting solution is only attained by constructing as many houses as possible and through enhancing efficiency. And, it is my personal conviction that the office of the deputy mayor would definitely accomplish the future condominium development projects accordingly.
Stay Safe stay at Home
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald.
The writer can be reached at endaleasse@yahoo.com
The Ethiopian Herald July 30, 2020
BY ENEDALE ASSEFA
