[Source: The Standard, by Mwangi Muiruri]
Major stakeholders in the property sector are warning that the continued flooding in major towns and cities could see developers count huge losses estimated at Sh60 billion annually.
This presents new challenges to the real estate sector occasioned by increased costs that eat into the developers’ profit margin, as they seek their own ways to dispose of storm water, drain septic tanks as well as improvise ways to secure their properties from floods.
The losses are experienced in the form of collapsed or sinking buildings as well as landslides that render property market unattractive during rainy seasons, not forgetting the disease burden associated with storm water.
The government is accused of only giving lip service to the loss of lives and properties occasioned by floods — leaving the stakeholders on their own to count their losses.
Mairura Omwenga, the chair of Town and County Planners Association of Kenya (TCPAK), says the national and county governments stand accused of negligence, especially in offering developers sewer disposal infrastructure.
He says the country is only treated to beautiful policy papers and honey-coated verbal declarations on drainage systems in urban areas.
This, he noted, has seen billions of shillings set aside for the projects, only for the cycle to remain the same, year in year out.
“We are not short of legal girds to have us stem flooding in the property market. We do indeed have a national spatial plan (2015) and national land-use policy (2017) both prepared by the Ministry of Lands’ Physical Planning Department,” he says.
Omwenga said key laws fail to identify and address flooding as a major national issue.
He stated that inadequate national or county budgetary allocation for development and infrastructure dims effort to improve drainage and control flooding.
Devolution and Asals Development Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa admits there are “hollow aspects in various laws that ought to address flooding in the property market.”
CS Wamalwa observed that the government is in the process of reclaiming all drainage system pathways that have seen high profile demolitions of structures on such land.
Alfred Opere from the Meteorology Department at the University of Nairobi says enforcement of regulations governing settlement in zones designated as flood-prone has been a major problem in Kenya.
Lack of housing and inability to access more decent dwelling places, he noted, has encouraged the development of slums in areas, which are more liable to flooding – making the urban population more vulnerable to the menace.
The Council of Governors (CoG) says it is liaising with the central government to come up with a work plan to tame flooding, especially in urban centres.
[Full article: The Standard, by Mwangi Muiruri]
