REAL estate and land experts have called for the need of a comprehensive master plan to address Harare’s environmental challenges to ensure sustainable urban growth.
Speaking at the recent two-day Zimbabwe Property Expo 2024, realtors and land experts called for a comprehensive master plan to address Harare’s environmental challenges to ensure sustainable urban growth.
Zimbabwe’s capital faces pressing urban development challenges owing to rapid population growth, inadequate infrastructure and environmental degradation, threatening the city’s sustainability and liveability.
Thus, a comprehensive master plan would provide a strategic framework for addressing these challenges, ensuring coordinated development and promoting sustainable growth.
“We need a master plan that clearly outlines our development priorities and integrates community input. Without it, we risk chaotic growth,” Gary Thompson & Associates chief encouragement officer Gary Thompson said during the conference.
Homelux Group founder and chief executive officer Justin Machibaya emphasised the importance of expertise in developing world-class master plans for local authorities.
“To achieve international standards, we need master plans that reflect that level of excellence. Sometimes, it’s better to seek proper expertise and help from those who have done better, so we can emulate,” he said.
Machibaya suggested considering an employee or outsourcing scheme in town planning and master plan development based on global best practices.
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“You can only move beyond what you are exposed to. We operate within what we know. If you pick up any ordinary plan, you will get an ordinary development,” he added.
“We are creating a retirement estate for Africa and the world, so we are sourcing and outsourcing expertise through meetings and online collaborations.”
City of Harare director for urban planning James Mazvimba reiterated the need for outsourcing expertise to develop a world-class master plan.
He stated that there was a need to engage a skill set that is wider than what was available and cited the success of Rwanda’s Kigali master planning programme as a model to learn from.
“A team of the consultant and the planners are going to be going to Rwanda to look at how they have developed their Kigali, for example, through their master planning programme,” Mazvimba said.
“So yes, we do agree with that aspect that we need to engage a skill set that is wider than that team is currently in the system. We are open to engaging expertise from outside to ensure our master plan is of international standards.”
Ecologist Robert Cunlife raised concerns about the impact of inadequate planning on water resources.
“From a conservation perspective, our water resources are really under siege at a national level. Zimbabwe is getting drier and will get drier. I think we can say that with certainty, so we do need to think and we do need to plan on how do we manage the coming situation and it starts at a very broad level,” he said.
“From a conservation perspective, we’ve not been very good in terms of catchment management and one of the problems with that is institutional, in that we have separated the water from the environment.
“So, we have water being managed under the Lands and Agriculture ministry and we have the environment under the Environment ministry, and it’s the same with wetlands and water. Wetlands are under the Environment ministry, water is under the Agricultural ministry within agriculture.”
