City government in dilemma

Demolish 60,000   illegal houses or not?

By Tamiru Geda

The Council of the Addis Abba City is paying serious attention to the fate of thousands of illegally built houses in the city, before the general meeting that was held between the citizens of the metropolis and the new governors of the city that took office a year ago.
During the meeting held in December 2003, the two parties - the City Government of Addis Ababa and the stakeholders, the public at large – had agreed not to demolish those illegal houses which were built before the meeting. But now the City Government seems to reconsider this decision.
It is said that all illegal houses that are built outside the master plan of the city would be removed. “We are still dwelling on the fate of those 60,000 illegal houses,” mayor Arkebe Iquibai told the parliamentarians, on his six months performance report to the house of people’s representatives.
According to Ato Arkebe, the city administration notice in its one year performance that not all illegally built house are set up by poor dwellers who do not have shelters, but by well to do citizens also who are looking for means of making more money.
Those illegal houses, he said, that are build in line with the master plan would not be touched, but the owners would face appropriate penalty for disrespecting the principles of the City Government. The latter is now looking for the best way to provide a legal plan and deed for those illegal houses that can be incorporated in the existing master plan.
Addis Ababa is considered a poor city in as far as providing basic residence need for its citizens. Over 250,000 dwellers are seeking urgently houses to live in. According to the report , the 6% increase of the population of the city every year is also not compatible wit the growth of the city. Two third of the city is categorized as slums area, with no good infrastructure, widely exposed for sanitation problems and poor sewerage system.
With regard to the revenue collected by the City Government in the past six months, only 58% has been covered from a plan of 1.4 billion birr.
However this amount is said to be similar with the total amount collected last year in a period of ten months. And when compared with similar period last year (6 months) it is higher by 61%.
Reasons forwarded for the low collection and not meeting the target of 1.4 billion birr in six months this year are the lack of educational campaign with regards to the collection, lack of coordination with the tax collecting office among others.