Proposed Possible Solutions to Informal Settlements for enhancing Sustainable Urban Land Use: A Case of Nyarugenge District

The current land use management in Nyarugenge is not in good condition. The land use in urban part of this district is characterized by housing which most of them are very old and built in unplanned way. Poor waste water disposal, lack of accessibility is common characteristic of Nyarugenge except the area named Kiyovu. Most of all houses in Nyarugenge are single stories with overcrowdings and a considerable number of them are built on the site unsuitable for habitation. It is clear that there is a problem of poor housing result in unsuitable urban land use management.The main cause of this problem are lack of planning, lack of effective legislation, lack of institutions, lack of adequate professionals, most of Nyarugenge population are low income earners and high degree of rural urban migration. High migration rate causes high dwelling demand where high pressure is exercised on small urban land. This high pressure which arrives without effective and efficient measures in planning and legislation results in squatting to the land and negative effects are raised from the moment. The negative effects of poor land use management through housing is currently considerable everywhere in Nyarugenge. Most of hazards present currently such as flooding and destruction of houses by wind, fire are caused or made aggravated by the issue of poor housing. Not only hazards; even living conditions are not good due to poor settlement in the District. The peri-urban encroachment is disturbing the residents of Nyarugenge rural areas like Kanyinya and others where their farm land are directly translated into residential zones. Housing is erasing agriculture due to urban sprawl problem. Although here is a problem of poor housing and land scarcity which is causing those effects; the current approaches are not adequate to address that issue. They are still encouraging horizontal growth of the city rather than promoting vertical densification for managing our small scarce land. These approaches are also ignoring that he who wears the shoe knows where it hurts and use top down approach instead of integrating local community in decision making while solving the issue of land use management.Current approaches are not addressing poor housing and it has been found that using urban land in sustainable way is the engine of development of a country. So, innovative solutions are needed for enhancing sustainable land use management in Nyarugenge in order to prevent hazards, protect the environment, increase land productivity, reduce urban sprawl, use the land on its highest and best use, increase the living quality of urban dwellers and solve current need today having in mind future generation. Apart from academic purpose, the problem of poor land use management constrains me to undertake a research which the main objective is to provide innovative approaches for securing sustainable housing that enhances sustainable land use management in Nyarugenge district and becomes a show case for other urban districts.In order to achieve our research objectives, the predetermined boundaries of a research should be well illustrated. Our study, we were dealing with sustainable land use management. As land management is broad and we have limited time and means we focused on housing land use for enhancing sustainable urban land use management. We tried to get a reference from different case studies like Ethiopia, Ghana, Hong Kong, etc… and data from survey for analyzing the problem. Ours research is providing guidelines and advice to policy makers. As I am an estate manager my role here is not for providing policies but providing active advice and guide lines to be followed in elaboration of policies regulating housing for sustainable land use management in urban areas of our country.The approaches have been suggested. Those would be planning and implementation of high rise housing such as MILUs (multi-intensive land use) and condominium through slum upgrading rather than encouraging urban sprawl because we need land for other economic activity for the development of our country. Based on land scarcity, galloping population growth and high demand on housing in Rwanda low rise (single stories) are no longer able to meet the needs of housing in sustainable way. There is a need of high rises housing for meeting sustainable urban land use management which boost sustainable economic development of our country as it was done in Ethiopia. Even though this kind of housing requires high costs, innovation in financing these kinds of development is also suggested like rent to own scheme, housing cooperatives, subsidies and incremental financing system. Further researches also should provide adequate method of financing these schemes of housing. Sustainable land use management is needed because it offers a great spectrum of chance to encourage economic growth, environmental conservation and management, increased living standards and social equality, while mitigating the problems related to high growth rate of population, high urbanization rate, poor and informal settlement, poverty, lack of access to services and utilities, and economic uncertainty. It has been found that vertical densification is the only kind of sustainable housing which increases land productivity, uses the land at its highest and best use, can protect the environment, can increase living standards of population, can reduce urban sprawl and meeting current land use need without forgetting the needs in future generation. Based on land scarcity, galloping population growth and high demand on housing in Rwanda; low rise (single stories) are no longer able to meet the needs of housing in sustainable way. There is a need of high rises housing for meeting sustainable urban land use management which boost sustainable economic development of our country.