Fikremariam Tesfaye
12 December 2007
Addis Abeba — The Capital City is some 337, 700 homes short to , not fully, but moderately satisfy the housing needs of its residents, and most of the houses in the city are either too old or are with out the necessary living facilities, according to a research.
The research conducted by the Caretaker Administration as part of its Five-year strategic plan says that more than 25% of the houses lack toilet, 26% of them do not have kitchen and more than 30% of them are very narrow-sized with no partitions.
The administration says it aims to curb the chronic housing shortage with the 32,388 condominium houses under construction and another 33,000 that are to be constructed within the five year plan, which expires in 2003, EC.
."More buildings will be constructed to reasonably solve the shortage in 2003 E.C .More than 26,000 citizens will get homes at the end of strategic year," the administration says in the strategic plan.
Citing incompatibility between the demand for construction equipments such as cement and mental, and the lower scale supply, sources close to construction aspect of the strategic plan express doubts as to its practicality.
The city Administration long halted or completely abandoned a practice where individuals could get together, form an association and are assigned plot of land on which to construct their residential quarters.
The same sources say this has aggravated the housing problem in the city of around six million.
According to the sources, the government has given a large area for real estates to deliver houses at prices many say are un affordable for an average income earner.
"Giving wide land for real estates would only promote infrastructure and benefit the higher class people and perhaps the middle ones, but not the poor segments," the source in anonymity complained.
As a means to solve the shortage of residence in Addis, the government should give priority not for real-estate owners, but for the poor portions of the society since they are the majority of the citizens, the sources recommended.
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