The deadline for condominiums pushed back due to shortages in electricity and water

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Services Shortages Stunt Housing Developments

The deadline for a number of condominiums has been pushed back due to shortages in electricity and water

Water and electricity shortages are hampering the proper and timely construction of condominium houses at the Bole Arabsa site – the biggest of the numerous housing projects in Addis Abeba.

The 20,023 houses are located close to Bole International Airport. They are part of the 50,000 planned to be constructed by the Addis Abeba City Administration during the 2013/14 fiscal year.

Water scarcity has been forcing the project managers to fetch water from as far away as 10 km.

“Big vehicles have been transporting water to the project site,” HaileliulGetye, Kirkos project manager under the Addis Abeba Housing Agency,informed a crew of journalists, who moved to the site with officials from the Ministry of Urban Development & Construction (MoUDC) on Friday, February 7, 2014, to visit the construction of 40/60 and 10/90 condominium houses. “There are times when up to 50 big water tankers are transported within a single day.”

The Agency plans to transfer 26,000 houses under the 20/80 and 14,000 houses, for the first time, under the 10/90 scheme, in 2013/14. Close to 3,000 of these units will be stores for rent.

Divided into three sub-projects, the Bole Arabsa project includes Lideta, Kirkos and Project 15. It has 674 buildings,up to seven storeys high. The project covers an area of over 230 hectares.

Although the plan was to finish construction by the end of the 2013/14 fiscal year and distribute the homes to beneficiaries, shortages in transport, water, electricity and other basic facilities has forced the Agency to extend the deadline to the middle of the 2014/15 fiscal year.

Road and transportation issues are also hindering the speed of the construction. Approximately 252 project staff members, 288 contractors, five consultants with full staff and 430 micro & small enterprises (MSEs) with an 8,000 strong labour force, find it difficult to come to the project site, as they live far away, much closer to downtown Addis Abeba, according to Haileleul.

“We have nine city buses providing a transport service, but it still falls far short of meeting the demand,” he lamented.

Working under all this pressure, the project has constructed 65pc of the 10/90 houses, which are all two storey buildings. The construction of the 20/80 houses has reached 55pc completion.

The government planned to construct 95,000 houses in Addis Abeba in the year 2012/13 at a cost of 16 billion Br.

Another site visited by the crew is the YekaAbado project, located close to Sendafa, 40 km from Addis Abeba. Covering an area of 250 hectares, the project started in 2011 and has 570 buildings, ranging from two to seven-storey buildings. The project manager, WerkuAbera, says there are 367 contractors at the site and 570 MSEs, with more than 8,000 members. Some projectes are 65 to 89pc compeleted.

In the 40/60 housing scheme alone, 50,000 houses will be built at a cost of 26.05 billion Br. A total of 10,000 of them will be completed during the 2014/15 fiscal year. The financing will be secured from “different finance sources,” according to the executive summary of activities released by the Addis Abeba City Administration, in July 2013.

BY YONAS MULATU, AddisFortune