Osun, UNHABITAT sign MOU for towns structure plans

A NEW co-operation deal between the Osun Government and the United Nations city development agency ' the UN Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT) will soon yield a set of structure plan to guide the development of nine towns in the state.The deal, in which both the state government and the UN Habitat Programme Support Office have endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Nigeria (UNHAPSO) is valued at N400 million. The state has already paid its own counterpart contribution of N100 million leaving the balance of N300 million to be paid by UN Habitat.Towns listed to benefit from the programme include Osogbo, Ede, Ejigbo, Ikirun, IlesaIwo, Ila-Orangun, Ikire and Ile-Ife. When completed, the structure plans would complement the Urban Renewal Project of the present administration in the affected nine cities.The state commissioner for Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Muyiwa Ige, who confirmed the development last week while giving the scorecard of the ministry in the past six months, said that the state has discovered 38,846 dilapidated buildings, which constitute serious hazards to over 148,000 people living in those buildings scattered across the 30 local government areas of the state including the Area office, Modakeke-IfeHe said the situation is unacceptable and that the government had embarked on measures to rescue the citizens from living in danger.He said, ' To remove slums in our society with a view to promoting the healthy living of our people in line with the six integral action plans of this government, the department of Town Planning had embarked on the enumeration of dilapidated and deteriorating buildings.'He said it is saddening that in the 30 local governments and the area office, there are about 24,049 deteriorating and 14,797 dilapidated buildings making a total of 38,846 with 148,000 living in the structures.'The ministry is seriously working on this with a view to possibly inviting some International donor agencies to assist in solving this problem. The need to appeal to International agencies becomes imperative because the cost of replacing the structures will run to billions of naira which the state government cannot shoulder alone,' he said.
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