Transcript Urbanisation?

The opportunities and challenges of
urban planning in practice – The Case
of Maseru
By
Maseru City Council
Urbanization?
• Urbanization is understood to refer to a process
by which an increasing proportion of a country’s
population ends up living in towns and cities;
• Substantial differences exist in the way in which
different countries divide their populations into
urban and rural;
• Different criteria have been used in various
countries, including population size, dominant
economic activities/functions and legal
declaration.
Urbanization in Lesotho
• Legal declaration has been used to define urban areas, with the
inherent drawback that often such definition is not based on any
functional or statistical criteria;
• For instance, Lesotho had 11 proclaimed urban centres up to June
1980, after which an additional 5 rural settlements with a combined
population of over 30 000 people were proclaimed as urban, thereby
bringing the total number of urban centres in Lesotho to 16;
• In 1986 the 5 urban centres that had been added in 1980 were
again re-designated as rural;
• In 2006, yet another hitherto rural settlement of Semonkong had
been gazetted as urban, thereby increasing the number of urban
areas to 12;
• These shifts make it extremely difficult to compute the level of
Lesotho’s urbanization with any degree of certainty.
Urbanisation …
• the level of urbanization in Lesotho stood at 17%, a
figure which was somewhat low compared to some of
the Southern African countries;
• A more recent survey (CWIQ Survey 2002)put the level
of urbanization in Lesotho at 23%;
• Maseru City continues to increase its share of Lesotho’s
urban population since 1976;
• The rapid expansion of the industrial and commercial
base in recent years, and the poor performance of
Lesotho’s agricultural sector, has given an impetus to the
migration of large numbers of the rural population to the
City.
Population Indicators
Indicator
1976
1986
1996
2006
Total Population
1,216,815
1,606,000
1,841,967
1,872,721
Urban Population
127,435
188,028
312,4441
444,5412
Urban as % of
total population
10.5
11.8
6.9
3.7
98,017
137,837
227,880
Maseru population
65,031
Maseru as % of
5.3
6.1
7.5
12.2
Maseru as % of
urban population
25.2
32.0
36.0
51.3
Maseru growth
rate
6.6%
5.9%
3.5%
5.2%
total population
Population Projections - 2030
Subject
Maseru 2006
Ongoing sprawl
Total Population
227 880
600 000
MPA Population
294 000
555 000
MUA Population
248 000
400 000
MPA ex. MUA
46 000
155 000
Satelite Town
Population
41 500
45 000
Status of Maseru
• There is a general recognition that Maseru City
has today become an important settlement with
regional, national and international functions;
• The city stands out as an undisputable primate
settlement in Lesotho, and as an administrative,
industrial and commercial capital of the country;
• Its growth, both in terms of population and
physical development, has far outpaced the
provision of services, a problem that poses
serious challenges for urban planners.
Social Aspects
• Since Maseru City has expanded amongst traditional
villages and the City itself has largely grown through
rural-urban migrations, it has retained a very strong rural
outlook in social structure where modern and customary
laws are applied side by side and where the poor and
the rich are closely integrated;
• However, a few traditional villages have remained clearly
distinct and largely characterized by dilapidated housing
and concentrations of poverty;
• Similarly, the central business district and its surrounds
(old Maseru reserve) have not been fully integrated with
peri-urban areas in terms of service provision, with the
latter areas remaining largely underserved.
Spatial Planning Issues
• Attempts at spatial planning in Lesotho started
soon after independence and continued
sporadically until 1985, ending with the National
Settlement Policy in 1990;
• At the local level, spatial planning appears to
predate independence;
• A series of plans were prepared for Maseru
again ending with the Maseru Development Plan
in 1990;
• Draft MUPTS now in place – yet to be accepted
as a working document/planning policy.
Spatial Planning …..
• Spatial planning is by nature statutory and
although recent international best practices
show that planning has significantly shifted
towards collaborative and participatory
approaches, success has in the past depended
on appropriate and effectively implemented
legislation;
• The implementation of planning laws in Lesotho
has generally not been very effective.
Challenges of urban planning in
Maseru
•
-
It is in Maseru that the country’s most significant urban challenges are seen,
including:
rapid population growth,
the destruction of much of the city’s physical infrastructure due to rapid
population growth,
Land tenure issues,
a sharp increase in land prices and rents,
high prevalence of HIV/AIDS,
high rate of unemployment,
inaccessible infrastructural services such as water, electricity, road
networks,
fragmented policies all aimed at addressing urban management,
high levels of poverty,
Sporadic urban sprawl
Urban planning not implemented to the latter (development control aspect
only)
Key actors in urban planning in
Maseru
• Ministry of Local Government & Chieftainship
• Department of Lands, Survey and Physical Planning
• Maseru Municipal Council
• Lesotho Housing and Land Development Corporation
• Department of Housing
• Ministry of Public Works and Transport
• Ministry of Natural Resources
• WASCO
• LEC
↔ Absence of integrated planning
↔Uncoordinated and often conflicting plans (case of Ha
Mabote)