By Goth Mohamed Goth
The newly resettled Residents of Ayax 4 estate will for the second night in a row spend the night in the cold for fear of their shelters crumbling on them after rains flooded their recently occupied shoddily built residential houses which are in appealing state.
The Ayax 4 estate is part of the UN Habitat reintegration and Improved Livelihoods for Returnees and IDPs in 4 Towns in Somaliland”, implemented by UN-Habitat in collaboration with Somaliland Government Authorities. The Project is financially supported by the People of Japan.
The Ayah 4 consist of the construction of 350 one story housing units, with 3 rooms and a built up area of 10 x 9 meters (90 square meters) each, inclusive of a covered kitchen area, a pit latrine with septic soak away pit, a water tank and an open court-yard with basic flooring surrounded by a perimeter wall located at the Ayah 4 dedicated resettlement area, North-East of Hargeisa Town.
The director general in the Ministry of Resettlement and Rehabilitation Mr. Mahmoud jibril yonis haji speaking at the Ayax 4 estate said, “Today we are here to assess the damage we have witnessed caused to newly occupied residential homes.
- All houses are leaking in the same way.
- Stagnation of rain water in the verandahs
- Leaking roofs
- Leaking water storage tanks
- Latrines are inaccessible because of their 40 inch staircases
- Threats caused by uncovered water storage tanks
- Lack of recreational facilities
The Ministry of Resettlement and Rehabilitation official also confirmed that they have contacted both the contractor responsible for building the house and officials from the UN Habitat so as to meet tomorrow at the site so as to address the grievances of the resettled residents of Ayah4 estate who have being living at the estate for just one week.
SomalilandPress.Com
There should be more government regulation on how buildings are built to keep our people safe. Access to latrines should be made easy and efficient, rain water should be collected and made sanitary for washing and drinking. all of these things are simple little and inexpensive things we can do for our population.
I keep saying it we should have a national fund where businesses and diaspora landers can contribute on a monthly basis and when the year is out we fund projects across the country.
If we can pay upwards of 100 dollars for cell phones we can afford to kick back 35-100 or so to a fund that builds Somaliland.
I am glad these families made it out and are safe. Hopefully, fellow landers will offer then a place to stay.