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The other focus of attention for the MoWUD is
infrastructural expansion in towns, this will be
launched in the 2008/2009 budget year. Close to one
billion Birr has been secured from the World Bank
for this purpose.
The fund will finance infrastructure installations
in 20 towns, including Addis Abeba, which is
expected to use 10pc of the total budget. The towns
chosen currently accommodate half of the country’s
population residing in towns.
In order to effectively use the fund, the ministry
has planned to make regional states and towns show
commitment to the projects by getting them to source
20pc of the total infrastructure development costs.
The housing construction project which kicked off in
2006/2007 has, however, faced a serious setback; the
scarcity of construction inputs like cement, steel
and gravel. The MoWUD has set out to overcome these
obstacles according to its six months report for
2007/2008.
Although the ministry had planned to construct
85,045 houses in 55 towns, including Addis Abeba, in
the current fiscal year, basic preparations before
the launch of this year’s construction projects have
not yet been undertaken, says the report.
Also, contractors available for this project were
not adequate. The number of contractors required in
the middle of the budget year was 1,585, but only
744 were involved. In the previous budget year, 945
contractors were involved in the sprouting
condominium constructions.
Moreover, the existing contractors are confronted
with the grim reality of a shortage of construction
materials.
In the first six months of the budget year, 88,574tn
of cement was used for the housing constructions.
This year’s housing projects require 1.5 million
tonnes of cement. In a bid to increase the supply of
this scarce commodity, the MoWUD has agreed with the
Addis Abeba Housing Development Agency to import one
million tonnes of cement. In addition, the ministry
will import 135,000tns of steel in three phases in a
bid to alleviate the shortage. Only 47,119tn of
steel was used by the condominium projects in the
first six months of this budget year.
The ministry has further been hampered by the
shortage of gravel. For instance, the demand for
gravel in the Oromia Regional State in the first six
months of this budget year was 1,429 metre cube but
the supply was only 600 metre cube. The same applied
to the Southern Regional State, the demand and
supply was 230 meter cube and 97 meter cube
respectively.
Despite theses hurdles, Arkebe did not give up.
He came up with a proposal to increase the number of
contractors and construction materials supply, and
tabled it to the council of ministers. The latter
automatically endorsed his proposal, and the
Ministry of Transport and Communications floated a
tender to procure construction machineries that
would facilitate the supply of the inputs.
The ministry signed an agreement with China Geo
Systems (CGC) Overseas Construction Ethiopia Ltd to
procure 2,000 trucks in January this year. The
Chinese XIAMEN XIA GONG Trading Co. Ltd. has been
chosen to supply 100 crushers and 100 loaders.
Contractors and transport companies that are
considered to have excelled in past housing
development projects would be given the opportunity
to submit tenders for the acquisition of the trucks.
Over 3,300 companies and individuals have so far
registered their tenders.
The Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC)
and the Ministry of Health (MoH) have requested to
be part of MoWUD’s programme. The telecom monopoly
wants to build 1,000 stations as part of its mobile
network expansion while the MoH has geared itself up
to construct 1,000 health stations.
For these projects, 350 construction and 50
consultancy companies are needed, and the ministry
is currently forming two consultancy companies and
1,000 construction companies at a projected cost of
close to half a billion Br. The companies will
borrow 250,000 Br from micro-financial institutions.
From the one billion Birr the Addis Abeba City
Caretaker Administration secured from the sale of
bonds to the CBE, it has granted 50 million Br to
the Addis Credit and Saving Institute, which has an
insufficient finance, sources disclosed to
Fortune.
The MoWUD is also busy with constructions at the
expansion sites of the three sugar factories -
Metehara, Wonji-Shoa and Finchaa - and the new
Tendaho Sugar Factory, which is projected to cost
the federal government 15 billion Br .
Lying on 64,000ht of land, Tendaho is expected to
produce over 600,000tn of sugar a year. With an
eight billion Birr budget, the project will be
carried out in three lots; the Ministry of Trade and
Industry and the Ministry of Water Resources
undertake the construction of the factory and the
installation of dams respectively, while the MoWUD
carries out the construction of the condominium
houses, health institutions, entertainment
facilities, police stations, as well as schools.
With the current boom in constructions, Hayder
foresees a really big change to come in his home
town in the years ahead. A change that goes beyond
upgrading the town to include the transformation of
the lives of his townsmen. |
