That is the calculation of Jose Forjaz, director of the Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning at the Eduardo Mondlane University {UEM}, Mozambique's largest university. He was speaking on "Urbanisation, Territorial Ordering and Development" on Tuesday, at a research seminar organized by the University's social science faculty.
Forjaz noted that Mozambique is following much the same trajectory of urban growth as the rest of southern Africa. At the current rate, by 2015 the majority of the Mozambican population will be living in cities and towns.
The current estimate is that 28.6 per cent of the population is living in the urban areas. Three quarters of them are living in the poor, "non-urbanised" neighbourhoods. These largely unplanned areas are where most of the urban growth is happening.
"The population of our cities is growing more rapidly than the rural population", said Forjaz, "and the population of the poor, unplanned neighbourhoods is growing more rapidly than that of the richer, urbanized neighbourhoods".
If these people are to enjoy a decent standard of living, then large sums of money need to be invested in the poor urban areas - some of this money should go into housing, and some into basic services, such as schools and health centres.
"Our cities are characterized by a lack of basic infrastructure, efficient urban services, decent housing for the majority of the population, an urbanized space for expansion, jobs, and administrative, technical and financial capacity", said Forjaz. Also not enough tax was collected in the cities.
Clearly the figure of 300 million dollars a year Forjaz mentioned cannot come out of the Mozambican state budget. Countries such as Mozambique, he said, simply do not have enough resources of their own to meet these needs.
But if the question is postponed, then by the year 2015, 12 million people will be living in Mozambican towns and cities, and nine million of them will be in slums.
Forjaz did not believe the growth could be reversed - Mozambique was no exception to the general trend, observed throughout the world, of people migrating from the countryside and into towns.
SOURCE: AIM
