BY MENGESHA AMARE
It is undeniable fact that Addis Ababa, the political and diplomatic capital of Africa, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Owing to its historical, cultural and religious heritages; and other important attractions, the capital has numerous attractions worth visiting.
However, to make the city more clean, green and attractive and conducive not only for its dwellers but also visitors, all dwellers ought to develop a scientific approach to beautify and keep it tidy in accordance with government’s regulations and municipality sanitation framework.
Abeba Setargie is an enviromnetal scientist with whom this writer stayed and talked about some aspects of making Addis Ababa charming and eye-catching city. She said, “political will and commitment of the mass matters to make Addis attractive and catchy as its name besepeaks. We have to give over the responsibility to build beautiful city to private corporations, too. A beautiful city has only ever been created when municipal officials impose strict and ambitious regulations.”
“The goal of growing skyrocketing buildings is to give Addis Ababa majestic look. People need to decide on their local flavor of beauty and gather the political will to enforce it. That is really how citizens can build a good-looking city,” she said.
Since Addis Ababa houses numeraous population drawn from every corner of the nation, apart from those who were born here, all need the city to be healthy, productive, enriching, and functional—not just beautiful and beguiling. Active and bustling streets are also important because they build strong economies, offer mental and social stimulation, and provide city dwellers with a density that makes public investments worthwhile.
“As far as my experience of many cities around the world is concerned, it is overly strict regulation that can stifle the complexity and variety that give most cities beauty and function. It is time to create and expand the urban village model tourist attraction sites like the Unity Park that Addis Ababa has become famous for,” she added.
She further stated that the capital must provide varying levels of activities and privacy for its residents and visitiors. Many seek out urban environments for their bubbling activity and social nature. But some will always need a quiet, private place to relax and refresh.
As to her, she said a beautiful city without function is its own vice. It is well recognized that only a few cities in the world are truly beautiful—and none of them has been built in recent history. There are many aspects that have to be taken into account to make Addis Ababa comfortable to its dwellers and attractive to its visitors. Cleaning up is one of the fundamental ways to attract people to a city. From the waterways to the protected environmentrs to the side of a busy road, keeping debris contained and trash clened up will make a more attractive city to people wanting to settle, reside and visit. Besides, having monthly trash collection community events in a bid to bring people together for the right reasons by giving them a vital role in keeping the city clean. If dwelers are involved in making the city more attractive, they will porbalbly feel more comnnected to it.”
Another important step to make Addis Ababa clean is keeping waterways clean, which intails reducing the amount of unwanted water pollution from silt, trash or derbis in waterways.
Yes, she said, investing in parks, recreation centers, city beautification initiatives and riverside projects is of significantly useful in providing Addis Ababa with majestic look and mesmerizing stay in it.
Creating an environment that brings citizens problmes and concerns to the forefrongt of community conversations through collaboratibve community growth discussions is decisive, too. A well rounded, attractive and a city that values citizens safety and invests things that will bring its community together is a decisive step to come up with memorable and comfortable city to live in.
With all big projects, there is always an opportunity for many organizations and companies to get involved in a range of ambitious projects playing dual role: benefiting them out of schemes and creating a haunting and appealing city.
She said, “Providing hygiene training using hygiene curriculum developed by implementing partners has to be well focused on as it is one of the invaluable measures to make the city clean.”
“Urbanization has long been associated with human development and progress, and it refers to the mass movement of populations from rural to urban settings and the consequent physical changes to urban settings. True, Addis Ababa is known for playing multifarious functions to all its inhabitants. It has been the heart of various businesses, industries, technological development, economic growth and societal change and at the same time serving as a breeding ground for poverty, garbage hub and center of serious sanitation challenges.”
Some of the major health problems resulting from urbanization, she said, include poor nutrition, poor sanitation, pollution-related health conditions, housing conditions and health related aspects. As all these have direct impacts on individual or community quality of life, embarking on sanitation and environmental hygiene pays off.
Undeniably, infrastructure should be well secured, sufficient space for recreational activities has to be well thought of and immense employment opportunities need to receive increased attention along with making neat and tempting city, she underlined.
Although urbanization has become an irreversible phenomenon, some have argued that to resolve the problems of the city, dwellers must tackle the root causes of the problem, such as improving the socio-economic situation of the urban poor.
Ephrem Debela is working on sanitation and environmental hyginene. Having a stay with this writer, he said a successful city is economically and culturally vibrant, healthy, safe, clean and attractive to business and tourism, and provides its citizens with quality of life. This vision is appealing but remains hard to realize as a developing city like Adis Ababa has faced wtith numerous challenges such as severe satitation hurdles.
What is required is a radical shift in mindsets and practices towards an urban sanitation approach that impacts political priorities, funding, planning, design, management and governance, he added.
This radical shift will require the engagement of all stakeholders and a political transformation that touches all citizens, at all walks of life, informal and formal, to facilitate the roll out of universal urban sanitation services. This is critical not only for reasons of equity, and to respond to the human right to sanitation, but also because the consequences of inadequate sanitation eventually affect everyone, as excreta-related pathogens spread easily across urban environments.
“Policy makers, municipalirty officials, organizatons working on sanitation and hygine, like Addis Ababa beautification and sanitaon bureau, and the likes need to better understand how sanitation impacts the functions and form of the city and how it supports economic development and promotes equity to make a difference and real progress,” he underlined.
Every urbanite in Addis Ababa, no doubt, would like to have a beautiful city having bustling public squares where people can drink coffee or read the newspaper, reacreational spots and alluring resorts and spas. These places have to be intimate and enclosed enough to feel like an extension of everyone’s home, and give citizens relief from their cozy private quarters.
Yes, these days, the showpieces of Adis Ababa exhibit its priorities to citizens as a multidimentional city. Hence, all city dwellers are expected to work from dawn to dusk to make Addis Ababa quite clean therby comfortable to work and live in.
The Ethiopian Herald 5 February 2023
