John Mbaria
28 July 2003
Nairobi — WITH FACILITATION from the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) three East African cities are gradually coming to grips with the damage that rapid urbanisation, unplanned development and weak economic base has been doing to Lake Victoria and its environs.
Recognising the Lake as a common resource from which they draw a significant percentage of their revenues, officials from local authorities in Musoma in Tanzania, Kisumu in Kenya and Kampala Uganda last week met in Musoma to address the unsustainable demands placed on Lake Victoria's resources by residents leading to overexploitation, conflict over fisheries and massive pollution .
To enable the three towns to halt this trend and allow residents, businesspeople and industrialists to contribute resources and participate in decision-making, or UN-Habitat has brought together the three cities through a process referred to as "City Development Strategies(CDS)."
During a workshop held in Musoma last week, participants were told how the town had used the strategy in the past one year to get the private sector to participate in the management of the town, in budget preparation and in setting up tangible projects.
The workshop was attended by mayors or their representatives from the three local authorities, who to exchange achievements, discussed common challenges while implementing CDS and forged a common approach to problems that have arisen.
Following the initiative, Musoma Town Council has set up an information centre where residents can access information they need on the town council and its administration.
It has also set up a secondary school while a housing project meant to construct 500 housing units is underway.
"By involving the private sector in revenue collection, we have also been able to achieve more than 90 per cent of our targeted collection" said Benjamin Maziku, an engineer with Musoma Town Council, adding that his council gave 20 per cent of the revenue collected to the contracted private companies.
Participants were told that with a population of about 120,000 people, Musoma's relatively small size had worked to its advantage.
But the town's authorities had also banked on a general change in the way decisions were made in Tanzania.
"Beginning in 2001, the government has made efforts to involve members of the public in the making of decisions pertaining to their welfare and in the implementation of projects" said Mr Kahindi.
Residents have also used the opportunities created by the renewed goodwill to campaign for better delivery of services.
Participants were informed that following community seminars and a survey conducted by the Musoma Town Council last year, most residents "came out complaining that the council's performance was not satisfactory."
Mr Kahindi said that this assisted in the setting of priorities and in solving community problems through a four-year implementation plan.
Things are however not so rosy in Kampala - with a population of more than one million - and Kisumu -with more than 450,000 people.
Authorities here are still grappling with how to implement the concept while attempting to handle the massive solid and liquid waste they generate, most of which finds its way into Lake Victoria.
From a presentation made by the Kisumu City CDS co-ordinator James Okoth, it emerged that despite making efforts to involve residents, the local council is yet to make much progress in the implementation of the initiative.
Mr Okoth attributed this to the high turnover and redeployment of officials working for the council.
"Following the general election in Kenya last year, all the councillors who had been trained in the CDS process were voted out while the city has seen the redeployment of four town clerks, three treasurers and a change in city engineer," he said.
Participants were informed by the co-ordinator of the Urban Management Programme in UN-Habitat, Dinesh Mehta, that the Lake Victoria CDS initiative in the three lakeside cities was launched after the realisation that to improve the living conditions of the residents and reduce pollution and unsustainable utilisation of the lakes resources, "there is a need to uphold popular, private-public participation in decision-making and in development projects."
He added that East Africa could not ignore the effects of globalisation and the rise in the number of migrants taking off to lakeside towns in search of economic opportunities.
"All this is taking place without requisite economic development in the region, leading to a rise in urbanisation of poverty and inability of municipal authorities to manage the resultant activities owing to a weak economic base."
Apart from representatives of the three local authorities and UN-Habitat, the workshop was also attended by representatives from civil society, local government associations in the three East African countries and representatives from donors who support the various initiatives being carried out around Lake Victoria.
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