Addis Ababa City Administration has on Thursday inaugurated a 2.5 billion Birr River Side Rehabilitation Project which is an initial phase of the 29 billion Birr worth grand level project initiated by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed.
While inaugurating the project Deputy Mayor of the City Administration Engineer Takele Uma said that the aim of the project is rehabilitating the historic rivers of the city so that the city can live up to its name, New Flower. The three years project aims to develop the riversides in to attractive recreational places.
According to a study by Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) almost all of the rivers in the city are have become dangerous to health as they are polluted by toilets, garbage’s and most of all hazardous wastes released by factories that utilize dangerous chemicals.
Hence, the realization of the projects is hoped to alleviate the health risks associated with the pollution of the rivers as well as to add their aesthetic value so that the city can have the appropriate feature it deserves.
The 2.5 billion Birr budget is allocated by the city administration while the remaining budget will be covered by the federal government under the good will of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy, Eng. Takele said during the ceremony.
The La Gare Village was also launched in November by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy. The project to be implemented over 360,000 Square Meters of land is believed to open
up more chances for commercial and residential purposes.
These two mega projects are part and parcel of the large scale reform efforts that aim to boost the growth of the century old city to the level it deserves to attain. Apart from such state of the art facilities the city administration has also embarked up on efforts of improving the service delivery of the public sector.
Addis Ababa City Mayor Press and Public Relation Office said that the nationwide reform has brought a lot for Addis Ababa. The new administration gives special attention to practically implement the reform on the ground and many changes are registering in all political, social and economical aspects.
Addis Ababa is the third diplomatic hub of the world, the seat of African Union and the federal government of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa City Mayor Press and Public Relation Director Bereket Takele, said the management and leadership of the city during this milestone reform time put directions to manage it in modern way.
In a bid to implement the reforms on the ground the city administration is working towards ensuring good governance, rule of law, providing modern service delivery institutions, identifying the major challenges of the city, addressing the demand of the citizens and dwellers of the city. “In general, Addis Ababa as a city has hosted so many development and administrative changes since then”, Bereket said.
The director stated that during the past six or seven months, over 5.2 million square meters of illegally owned land has been restored to the state, which was among the cause of complaints in the city. In addition, based on the plan, to make Addis Ababa a new and suitable as its name, the city administration has launched construction of LaGare Integrated mixed use Village project.
The La Gare luxury mixed use village project which was launched two months ago by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed is expected to create over 25,000 jobs.
During the past months of reform time, the new administration of the city decided to fully stop the Sendafa Solid Waste Removal Project and compensate the injured residents of the surrounding area.
Since the new administration came to office, it has held discussions with more than 100,000 youth of the city. The city also created over 30,400 job opportunities for the youths of the city in six months, Bereket said. To expand recreational and sport centers for the youth, the administration started expansion of sport centers in 116 woredas of the city.
To address the scarcity of water supply in the city, the Koye Feche Freshwater project was launched by the Mayor. In addition, the city has started digging six water projects. It also gives special attention to expand basic health care services at all lower health centers. Basic health care services are expanded from 23 to 97 health centers during the past months of reform period.
Parallel with maintenance of existing road projects, six new road projects and numerous sub way road constructions have been started by the new administration.
The city also launched Trust Fund to rehabilitate street children and it started rehabilitating street children’s aiming at solving the problems the children has face and to keep the suitability of the city.
According to Bereket, to address problems related to service delvery the new administration started solving the major complaints of the people from the Mayor office and step by step to the lower administrations.
To strengthen the city’s friendly relations with sister cities of the country, the administration with over three hundred youths held journeys and discussed with Bahir Dar, Hawassa and Mekelle cities, which is also planned to continue to different cities of the country.
The Ethiopian Herald February 23/2019
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
