By Ogova Ondego
Published April 3, 2024
There is little doubt that Africa is urbanising faster than the residents can reflect on the state of their habitat and take action aimed at making these settlements safer and more livable.
Since the 1970s urban violence has grown at an annual rate of 5 per cent and according to Habitat Debate, a publication of the Nairobi-domiciled United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), most of this violence is directed at property.
It is with the aim of protecting property and life that high concrete walls are built around houses and housing estates in Nairobi City and its environs. These are usually reinforced by electric and razor-sharp fences, electronic surveillance, armed security guards and fierce dogs. But all these measures do not appear to curb the ever soaring levels of urban crime and violence.
RELATED: WHY AFRICA’S URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE SHOULD BE DISABILITY-FRIENDLY
Habitat Debate says that the three factors that encourage crime in urban areas are opportunity, ability and motive. The publication states that crime can be reduced either through preventing it from happening or applying various social controls that will impact on the potential offender.
By designing public utilities like parks, walkways, ATM bank facilities, shops and houses in such a way that there are no alleys or spaces through which criminals may duck after committing an offence, town planners can help curb crime by reducing a potential offender’s motivation to commit crime.
RELATED: VETERAN KENYAN PUBLISHER AND BOOK PROMOTER DIES
Real estate being an urban phenomenon, town planners would do well if they incorporated security measures in their plans. But this is only as far as crime is concerned.
Other safety measures to be put in place are those touching on accidents and other disasters whether natural or human-induced.
RELATED: LANDSCAPING CRUCIAL IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS) that focuses on the promotion of humanitarian values, disaster response, disaster preparedness, and health and community care around the world,  laments that most disaster response practice in the world is with rural people and rural disasters. This may not augur well for developers most of who are based in towns.
IFRCS, in its World Disasters Report, says that the key to curbing disaster in towns is through effective local government.
RELATED: EASTERN AFRICA TO ESTABLISH PUPPETRY AS ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL MEDIUM
If town planners do not stop people from building on hazardous land or mixing residential houses with industrial complexes disasters will always be there.
Poor people living on marginal land in the slums and exposed to industrial hazards and indifferent local governments, says the report, will make up the majority of disaster victims.
The situation is made worse by the fact that few towns are prepared to handle emergencies more so given a concentration of people, enterprises, all their wastes and motor vehicles.
But for enterprising city planners, says the report, higher population densities in cities mean much lower costs per household and per enterprise to provide piped water, waste disposal, healthcare, education and emergency services such as fire-fighting and 24-hour hospital services.
It further states that the concentration of industries reduces unit cost for pollution control, disposal of hazardous wastes and check on plant, equipment and occupational health and safety.
RELATED:HOW TO REAP DIVIDENDS FROM THE GLOBAL CULTURAL ECONOMY
