The population of mainland Africa in 2000, excluding the Mediterranean countries, was some 635 million people and taking an average of 6 to 7 in a family there were about 100 million families in East, West and Southern Africa.
From figures produced by the United Nations Environmental Programme the population increase in this part of Africa in the twenty years previous to 2000 was around 70%, so if we take this statistic forward the population now could be around 810 million people and 128 million families.
There does not seem to be figures available for the percentage of these families that live in what would be accepted as adequate low cost, serviced housing but even taking a generous percentage the number of families that do not have these very basic human needs is enormous.
Alarming as this picture looks some countries in the region under review have made the investment and good progress in the provision of housing for their people but unfortunately often with less than satisfactory results. In the rush to provide for a demanding populace and satisfy international pressure little consideration has been given to the future growth and development potential of the bulk housing townships.
This has resulted in townships remote from employment opportunities with inadequate road and transport links and poorly supported bulk services resulting in despondent residents that are very likely to move away leaving a major problem requiring additional investment and time to resolve.
We have to accept that the major cities are the magnet for employment opportunities that Africa’s vast population need for survival and that to change this is virtually impossible. This has resulted in the cities seeing some of the world’s highest population densities and the inability of the existing services to support the explosion.
The way forward is to accept this scenario and plan round it.
We need to suburbanise our cities in a planned and structured manner that provides housing, employment opportunities and transport access to the city facilities that are necessary for the people and the city.
This is done initially with high level planning to ensure the concept is sound and can be correctly developed as an integrated commercial and residential project. The detailed planning phase is next to ensure the outcome is a completely integrated, self supporting,
village living environment. This does add more time upfront but adds much more value to the end result.
The village living environment must be divided into areas necessary to support the resident population and the most important is an area for industrial and commercial businesses to provide employment. This may require incentives for businesses to set-up or relocate to the development. Secondly areas need to be set aside for shops, schools, clinics, religious facilities, recreation and municipal services.
Road and transport links together with adequate water, power and sewage services are vital for the success of the village environment.
The BSM Group with its range of integrated services can take the concept of a village environment, on an available piece of land, and develop it through all the steps necessary to implementation and beyond to ensure all stakeholders are satisfied with the result.
The BSM Group see the best way forward as expanding our cities and towns outward with self sustaining village living environments adequately connected as suburbs to the city or town. The village environment should have a planned mix of small to large detached houses, semi detached townhouses and apartment blocks.
Call the BSM Group now and let us bring our experience in the field of township design and development to solve your housing needs and then execute the project using our unique cast-in-situ fast build system.
Contact Us or Email: projects@bsmgroup.co.za