Government has announced plans to work with other stakeholders in the housing sector to ensure that citizens acquire affordable, planned housing to help improve quality of life.

James Musoni, the Minister of Infrastructure, spoke of the new efforts yesterday as Rwanda marked the World Habitat Day, under the theme "Voices from Slums,” at Camp Kigali Stadium in Nyarugenge District.

The minister said that 82 per cent of Rwandans in the countryside live in clustered settlements but added that only 52 per cent of them fulfill all the requirements for a properly planned modern settlement.

He said a good settlement is one that provides people with good accommodation, sanitation facilities and easy access to infrastructure and that allows proper land use.

He said this year, the government wants to add 240 planned villages, which will increase to 60 per cent the number of Rwandans living standard clustered settlement.

"Of the 48,000 families who were living in high risk zones, 41,000 were relocated to suitable places, but we still have 7,000 who should also be relocated as soon as possible,” he said.

The Director General of Rwanda Housing Authority, Esther Mutamba, said about 67 per cent of residents of the City of Kigali live in unplanned neighbourhoods.

She said that among the measures taken to solve the problem was to implement the master plans that have been developed not only for Kigali, but also for the other urban places around the country.

There is a plan to upgrade some of the slums to ensure they meet the basic standards, she said.

"There is a pilot study on improving settlements to be carried out this year in three neighbourhoods; Agatare in Nyarugenge District, Gatobotobo in Huye District and Tête Gauche in Musanze districts,” she said.

She said that Rwf400 million had been earmarked for this activity in Nyarugenge District and Rwf100 million for Huye and Musanze each.

Houses to be brought up in these areas will meet requirements and will be more affordable to people, she added. However, the officials said the private sector needed to get more involved with the provision of affordable housing saying that would help deliver the desired results faster.

She added that priority is on building apartments with multiple floors to help maximise space available.

The Mayor of City of Kigali, Fidèle Ndayisaba, said unplanned settlement is dangerous to the lives of people and makes maintaining security more challenging, giving the example of complications that are associated with putting out a fire in a slum.

UN Resident Coordinator Lamin Manneh said that about 1 billion people live in slums worldwide and that United Nations was keen to see 100 million people move out of slums by 2020. He said that the UN as committed to supporting Rwanda its habitat targets.

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