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25 April, 2007
Construction of houses by 101 associations has been suspended following a land dispute between the Oromia Regional State and the Addis Abeba Administration.
The construction sites, located at Anfo Meda and Filadoro, have been claimed by both Burayu town, in the Oromia Regional State, and Kolfe Keranio District in Addis Abeba. The District claims that the sites are located within its jurisdiction in Kebele 07.
Nigussie Adane, chairman of the Biruh Tesfa Disabled People Housing Association, told Fortune that the 340 members of the Association were each given a 105sqm plot a year ago by the Lease Board chaired by former Mayor Arkebe Oqubay, after paying 1.7 million Br, or one quarter of the lease price for all the plots, in one installment. Nigussie said that the members were undertaking the construction when the regional dispute brought all work to a standstill.
The dispute started when the Burayu Administration forced the people from continuing the construction of their houses, which had been going on since a year ago. Further complication occurred when the authorities of the Kolf Keranio District went to the construction sites on April 12 to stop what they called were illegal constructions. The Buryu authorities soon came accompanied by police to declare to the Addis Abeba officials that the area where they stood was in the Ormoia Regional State and that only the Oromia side had any say on it.
No construction is currently going on at the sites; even people who have completed the construction are said to have been barred from moving into their new houses.
“The houses we built when the price of construction materials was at its highest are lying idle,” Nigussie said.
The Kolfe Keranio District wrote a letter on Tuesday, April 17, 2007, to Wubshet Brehanu (PhD), manager of the Addis Abeba Caretaker Administration, seeking a solution to the problem.
Addis Abeba’s 54,000sqm area is totally surrounded by the Oromia region. Construction in the city, designated to take place on 30,000sqm of the total area, has previously led to disputes between Bole District and Debre Zeit, and between Akaki Kaliti District and Dukem. There has been a similar problem with Alem Gena town. None of these problems, nevertheless, have had the urgency of the dispute with Burayu town.
“The construction has been taking place on the land of our town,” said Bekele Hailemariam, general manager of the Burayu Administration.
He said his Administration has a responsibility as the construction was taking place without their knowledge for one year.
Oromia is the largest region in Ethiopia with an area of 363,000sqkm. It has 246 woredas in 17 zones; the region has also a claim on Addis Abeba, which it prefers to call Finfine.
A committee from the two regions, established to set the differences right, held a first meeting last week in its preparation to present a report based on the Master Plan and applicable laws. The committee members include two legal and four technical experts. The matter is said to be closely followed by Aba Dula Gemeda, president of Oromia, and Wubishet, the Caretaker Administration’s manager. A solution is expected sometime in May based on the committee report, according to Abdi Teha, manager of the Office of the President of the Oromia Regional State.
Mathewos Asfaw, one of the people who revised the City’s Master Plan, now heading his own consulting firm, said that the Plan clearly lays out the limits of Addis Abeba, enabling a professional solution to the existing problem. The Plan has a lifetime of 10 years, which means that Addis Abeba has enough space for the present. The city will require further expansion when the 10 year period is over.
“Then the City Administration will have to talk with Oromia,” he said.
By WUDINEH ZENEBE - FORTUNE STAFF WRITER