Minister Dugasse’s World Habitat Day message
05.10.2009
‘Towards a better and positive urban community’
In his message to mark World Habitat Day today, the Minister for National Development Jacquelin Dugasse has called on all of us to pledge to put our efforts together for a better and positive urban community.
The full text of Minister Dugasse’s message reads:
“The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. The theme of this year’s observance of the World Habitat Day is “Planning Our Urban Future “. In the Seychelles context, the idea is to reflect of the state of our present housing estates, our housing development programme and the continuation of the government’s effort to guarantee the right of all people to adequate shelter.
“It is also an opportunity to remind the country that providing a decent shelter to our population cannot be solely the responsibility of the government. More and more we feel the need for the other actors/partners in the society to join our efforts and resources together, and come up with a co-ordinated plan for our future housing development and also to develop educational programmes and to continue to educate our people to live more harmoniously on our housing estates.
“Despite the economic situation, government is committed to continue with its extensive housing programme with the aim of providing decent and affordable shelter to the most vulnerable of our society. However in the long term, the government would not be able to continue to do it alone. This is where the role of the private sector will be vitally important; the government as a facilitator may provide the land and other incentives but it will be up to the private investors to come with the necessary finances to give a hand in the process.
“Emphasis for the coming years will be placed on the responsibility of all citizens. Our people will have to take their responsibility in ensuring that they fulfill their obligations towards their housing priorities. Too often, this has not been the case. Whilst a good proportion of housing beneficiaries are taking their responsibility towards the repayment of one of their priorities of life, a small minority still does not see the necessity to do so. With the introduction of the Housing Saving Schemes in 2010, all applicants who would wish to obtain a house or a piece of land from government will have to contribute towards a saving scheme and attain a certain amount of contributions before they are assisted.
“In many parts of the world urban planning system has changed very little and has often resulted in urban problems rather than solutions for proper human habitation improvements. We note however that in Seychelles a lot of planning has gone into the creation of our urbanization programme and the building of our housing estates. We have successfully avoided the development of ‘slums’ in our country. We however need to see a change in the manner those infrastructures are taken care of and a change in the way we conduct our lives on these estates. “There is a troubling trend emerging in many of our housing estates and at district level, whereby people are engaging themselves in all sorts of undesirable activities, namely dealing in illicit drugs, alcohol abuse which result in many forms of domestic and social ills such as prostitution.
We all know the problems but we need to share the best solutions as efficiently and widely as possible by planning better and more sensitively for ourselves and our environment.
“On this World Habitat Day, let us pledge to put our efforts together for a better and positive urban community.”