Lilongwe residents for consolidated land rights
Lilongwe Poor People’s Network (Luppen) says it is committed to working with government and Lilongwe City Council (LCC) to find a lasting solution to land disputes in the city.
Luppen coordinator Harry Mamba said this on the sidelines of the organisation’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday.
The AGM organised with financial support from the Multiplying, Uniting and Developing (Mud) Africa, drew participants from Chinsapo, Biwi, Kaliwawala and Kamphinda in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chitukula and Areas 23, 36 and 44 in T/A Tsabango in Lilongwe.
Mamba said growing informality and poverty in urban areas, driven to a large extent by urbanisation, necessitates greater concerted action around land use management in urban areas to ensure more equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable use of finite land resources.
“In the recent past, we have seen government and city fathers clashing with the urban poor over land matters. It is not like the urban poor are anti-developmental in the city. But we want authorities to follow all procedures, including paying compensation, before relocating the residents.
“We ask government and the council to join hands with us in consolidating land rights in the city. The presence of large tracts of vacant and unused land in cities is an important issue in the context of growing informality and competition for land and, therefore, requires urgent policy attention,” he said.
A senior official in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Bertha Mwanza, welcomed the Luppen’s offer to work with them in addressing land issues in the city. n
