The Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP)

RECOMMENDED POLICY AND STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

3.0 URBAN LAND AND ENVIRONMENT

The urban land and environment policy (ULEP), is broadly focussed on the urban context, and again subject to the NLEP, and provides the policy basis for structure plans, the urban property market, environmental practices, and government land management and allocation. "Urban" refers to the definition in the settlement hierarchy of the NPDP.

ISSUES SUMMARY

Environment, land use and resource management

Loss of traditional and genetic variety near urban centres and along roads.
The threat to the urban environment without adequate channelling of market forces.
Uncontrolled urban growth pre-empting implementation of any overall vision for the towns.
Lack of protection of biodiversity - for example, harvesting indigenous trees to fuel fires in urban areas.
Concentration of pollutants into freshwater systems from impervious surfaces and from sewage outlets (eutrophication etc.).
Shortage of health facilities in informal settlement areas.
Lack of enforcement of the Natural Resources Regulations 1951, freezing development for 33 metres both sides of stream banks.
A general shortage of suitable land for schools and sporting facilities.
Inadequate infrastructure, in particular road networks and maintenance.
Increasing pollution and lack of green spaces resulting in environmental health hazards.
Inadequate water supply, sanitation and service delivery in a large proportion of the urban milieu.
Solid waste disposal practices that make it expensive to implement resource recycling.
Air pollution from commercial and domestic incinerators.
Inefficient exploitation of exotic timber reserves in urban areas.

Land tenure, land economics, population

Lack of enough land at the right price, with the right amenity and in the right location.
Government land allocation practices and plot pricing policies inimical to the emergence of a properly functioning land market.
Urban revitalization required in some areas where market activity is pre-empted by a clash between existing tenures and current commercial and planning requirements.
Increasing homelessness and expansion of squatter settlements.
A widening gap between those with property rights and those without, with concomitant crime, unemployment and underemployment.
Private sector resistance to government land regulations.
Regulations are not at the minimum level compatible with both the easy access of housing to services and the preservation of community wide interests and the environment.
Market mechanisms that stand in the way of market accessibility to the poor because of their high costs and slow delivery of services.

SUMMARY POLICY PROPOSALS

Status of Policy

Non-existent. However, structure plans are in place in most urban areas, providing a de facto base of policy decisions. These should be reviewed upon the adoption by cabinet of any such policy. Further, a related policy - the Urban Government Policy - has received cabinet assent, and a layman's draft of a new Urban Government Act and Regulations to implement same has been prepared. Moreover, a Physical Planning and Development Control Act, consolidating much current land-related legislation, is to be prepared in 1997.

Broad Overall Objectives

To provide well-functioning, safe and environmentally healthy urban areas with infrastructure and amenities appropriate to the various use types, as affordable as practicable to all income groups.
To allow the fullest possible expression of short-term market forces within the parameters of a socially, economically and environmentally desirable and sustainable long-term framework.
To enhance levels of urban biodiversity.

Policy Principles

The emergence of a properly functioning property market be facilitated, in particular for those having no option to illegal settlement due to insufficient property allocation mechanisms.
Departure from market value is prima facie evidence of inequitable resource distribution.
The institutions and instruments that provide for the management and operation of urban land markets be based upon the principles of equity, efficiency, flexibility and participation.
Medium density developments be encouraged in limiting the per capita influence on the natural environment in general, and in being a more economically rational utilisation of infrastructure.
Pollution not be allowed to enter the public domain without cost to the polluter.
Urban biodiversity to be a required objective in the management of public open spaces and government land.

Policy Practical Elements

Maximum utilisation of infrastructure be promoted by encouraging densification from low to medium density, for example including allowing 2-3 storey buildings for urban schools.
Legal instruments, such as the UDP's 99-year lease, be used to facilitate the integration of the urban poor into the legal city, and work towards an integration of formal and informal systems of tenure.
Structure plans designed to be responsive to the needs of the whole range of socio-economic urban residents.
Participatory systems of adjudication and dispute settlement be developed for urban residents, including landlord/tenant disputes.

Policy Supportive Elements

Institute professional land management, enabling sensitive monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation.
Develop transparent, simple and fair administrative processes and procedures to handle urban land and environment issues and involve private sector actors in the process.

SUMMARY STRATEGY PROPOSALS

General Strategic Approach

To develop and support improved land management practices that deal comprehensively with potentially competing urban land development requirements for housing, retailing, commercial, industrial, transportation, green space, agricultural, protected areas and other vital needs.
To improve structure plans and government land allocation procedures to ensure the provision and reservation of areas for public facilities such as schools, health and recreational areas, as required according to population density projections.
To review the urban planning and management framework towards ensuring its capacity to fulfill the above objectives.

Practical Strategy Elements

As far as it is practical, the local authorities, in cooperation with NGO's and the SEA, are to be used to educate the public concerning sustainable development and the impacts of individual behaviour upon the environment. The first step in this strategy, therefore, is to ensure that local authorities attain the capacity to perform this role through a strong relationship with the SEA.

Local authorities to license firewood vendors and limit the fuel species for sale to exotic species.
Local authorities to discourage, as they deem appropriate, the use of domestic and commercial incinerators, and in particular the burning of toxic/carcinogenic substances (eg some plastics).
Local authorities to ban the burning of grasslands without a permit.
The subdivision approval process to include cognisance of what vegetation is going to be affected by the development.
Local authorities to encourage cleaning-up operations by schools and civic organisations (service clubs etc) with a parallel public awareness campaign where possible.
SEA to advise local authorities on practical measures to encourage biodiversity.

Supportive Strategies

To confer legal powers at community level to undertake some land management tasks.
Introduce a land and housing market assessment system as soon as possible.
SEA to advise local authorities re bye-laws, and environmental issues within their purview.
Local government to ensure strict compliance with building regulations on major projects, which supportive strategy involves a review of current practices.
The establishment and legal recognition of professional and technical level institutes and associations to self-monitor and regulate commercial and environmental behaviour in land-related disciplines.
Government to review and if accepted establish procedures to enforce the existing dormant provisions of the Land Tax Order No. 35 / 1974 and the Town Planning Act No. 45 / 1961(refer "Status of Policy" above, last sentence).
Local authorities to implement the land-related recommendations of the Urban Government Policy.
Allocation principles for government land to be reviewed to enhance property market performance, and to enable equitable and transparent land distribution.

KEY REFERENCE MATERIAL

Aitken/Gregory 1994. "Report on Land Resource Management".
Fisher et al. 1991. Urban Land Management and Land Information Management in Swaziland.
Burrow & Partners 1993 Institutional Review, Land Management, Land Tenure and Survey.
Burrow & Partners 1993.Land and housing Market Study.
GOS/MHUD 1993. Statement of Sectoral Policy.
GOS/MHUD 1996. Habitat II: Swaziland National Report.
McAuslan, P. 1985. Urban Land and Shelter for the Poor.
UNHCS 1996. The Habitat Agenda.
World Bank 1993. Housing: Enabling Markets to Work.

MINISTERIAL INVOLVEMENT

Especially MHUD inclusive of strong representation from local government authorities, but also MTEC, MNRE and MEE: MOAC, particularly in the context of urban agriculture and utilisation of green corridors and belts within the expanded urban areas (refer 1.3.3.0. below).