Cabinet approves land use master plan

KIGALI - The Cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame, Wednesday approved the National Land Use and Development Master Plan, which will guide landowners to appropriately use their land. The master plan displays various features such as ecosystems management, population distribution and development of networks for rural and urban settlements, social services and infrastructure, and protected areas such as wetlands. The master plan was initiated by the government and SwedeSurvey, a Swedish consultant firm, was hired to carry out the architectural design.The plan provides planning standards and guidelines that will be used by all the implementing parties and will form the basis for decision making in this regard. It also reflects a move from old methods of conventional planning that were more product-oriented with limited stakeholder interaction to contemporary planning methods that are continuous and more action oriented, with maximum stakeholder participation. Speaking to The New Times, the Director General of the National Land Centre, Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza said that having the National Land Use and Development Master Plan and the land registration will effectively help in the implementation of the land policy. “The National Land Use and Development Master Plan will be implemented in three phases, the first one will be merging the district land usage policy together with the District development plan to form an Integrated Development Plan for the district,” said Nkurunziza. He hastened to add that; “the second phase will be the urban development plan while the third will be the area action plan.” Meanwhile, the Minister of Land and Environment, Stanislas Kamanzi, said that the land use and development master plan is a national tool that aims at ensuring rational, efficient, equitable and sustainable use of the country’s limited land resource. “It is meant to facilitate availing land to various important economic activities that involve inherently competing land uses. It assures guided and clear cut mediation,” he said. Kamanzi added that: “The general public certainly will benefit from the existence of this planning tool. Rational land use implies optimisation of production and efficiency in all sectors, including agriculture, infrastructure development, rural and urban settlements, and environment management.” Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting also approved the draft law relating to land usage and development in Rwanda, and the National Meteorology Policy. The meeting also appointed Nathan Gashayija as the Director of Policy and Programs Coordination in the Ministry of East African Affairs. Christine Mukakiramba was appointed Director of Cooperatives Supervision the Rwanda Cooperative Agency with Joseph Nzakunda and Beera Rutaremara named directors of Registration and Legal Affairs, and Planning and Capacity Building respectively. The Minister of Local Government, James Musoni, presented before the cabinet meeting the current situation of thatched houses in the country indicating that, there are 61,134 thatched houses that will be replaced by May 31. Ends