Housing crises for the urban poor in Malawi

(This is a re-post about to close the other blog)

Thursday, June 14, 2007
Housing crises for the urban poor in Malawi

Malawi is one of the highest urbanising countries in the world but with very little on the ground to alleviate the plight of the thousands of new immigrants into the cities and towns of Malawi such that the bulk of the people are living in deplorable condititons and the conditions are worsening. I guess someone could say that this is a phenomenon that is happening throughout the world but i guess around the world is urbanised whilst Malawi is not. It means that everything that can go haywire will, with informal settlements growing at huge rates and the slightly better off following on these people and displacing them, we are calling it salient evictions whilst the planners and the other professionals call it gentrification. If one was to look at the developments happening in Mchesi, 25, Kawale, Biwi etc the poor are definately on the move, to where, no one knows i guess there is need for a study on this but who would institute such a study, seems as if no one really cares anyway back to the issue, currently an average of 12 househols stay in one plot and when the landlord sales off the plot to a low middle income family (usually working with the Bank or kufodya (tobacco) they build one family home usually 3 bedrooms (mes) with a single quarters thus qualitatively 2 households displaces 12. The major problem is that most of these neighbourhoods are in close proximity to the sources of employment where people simply walk to work. As this is happening there are very few legal areas that are coming up for the poor to move to, very few though go back home as the bulk start renting usually in other low income communities. These issues are not just confined to Lilongwe, its throughout the country in all the cities, towns and small centres and as many more people move into the urban setting the problems are geared to get worse.

Its not all gloom though as the Malawi government is currently one of the most receptive in the SS region as it wants to be pro-active but i guess all the parameters are not in place for this to start making a difference especially for the people who have been waiting for over 43 years since Kamuzu Banda put shelter as one of the 3 basic needs that his people needed.

There is more though that can be done, but at this rate the problem far outweighs the solutions and if one was to look at countries with relatively bigger economies like Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa struggling with the housing problems one shudders on the thoughts of what will happen in Malawi where the problem is expected to be bigger and the poverty conditions to be worser.