Houses for Those Who Can Pay Mortgages

9 May 2011

Maputo — The 100,000 houses that the Mozambican government intends to build by the year 2014 will be sold to young people and to those working in the public administration – but only if they have the financial capacity to pay off a mortgage.

Public Works Minister Cadmiel Muthemba, cited by the independent television station STV, made this clear at the weekend during the closing session of a meeting of his Ministry’s Coordinating Council.

He thus dashed the unrealistic hopes of those who expected the government to distribute the houses for free. Muthemba stressed that the eligibility criteria include the capacity to pay off debts.

He said that decent housing is a government priority. In addition to the houses that the government itself will build, plots of land with all the required infrastructure (such as water supply) are being demarcated for self-build activities. He said that some of the 100,000 houses have already been built, but did not give an exact figure.

Muthemba added that his ministry is working with the municipalities and other local authorities to demarcate land for housing, and is developing partnerships with private business in order to mobilise resources “to build housing of social interest”.

The Minister also announced that, since early 2010, about 3,000 rural water sources (wells and boreholes) have been built or rehabilitated.

Major urban water developments include the expansion of the greater Maputo system, under which the number of consumers supplied by the public water system in Maputo, the neighbouring city of Matola and the town of Boane is set to more than double – from 700,000 to 1.5 million.

In the central province of Manica, a new water distribution scheme based on the Chicamba dam will carry water to the provincial capital, Chimoio, to Manica and Gondola towns, and the localities of Bandula, Messica and Cafume.

AllAfrica – All the Time