Land Allocation and the Publicness of Lake Tana Area in Bahir Dar City
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Date
2012-06
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Addis Ababauniversity
Abstract
The Bahir Dar city administration is allocating land for investors and for other public activities with no more emphasis given for the equitable distribution of the natural resource. The recent development undertakings along Lake Tana are high standard hotels and lodges which occupy large parcels of land that restrict access for the poor towards the public spaces found along the lake. Moreover the routes are fenced in and closed at various points along the lake.
The term publicness by itself shows the common usage, and common ownership right of a certain resource. The land allocation for different activities especially along the coastline of rivers and water bodies affect the publicness of the resource. Most development demands to concentrate on facing the soft space water bodies through inclusive enclaves which is difficult for the public to access.
The objective of this study is to assess, examine the land allocation process along the lakefront of Bahir Dar and its impact on publicness. The research deals about the equitability of public goods, i.e. land, about the impacts of land allocation for private development on publicness of the lakeside area and the impact of the development on accessibility to the given natural resource.
The research answers the questions of land allocation system, the immediate beneficiaries, the different rules and regulations if available, and the publicness of the lakeside against the recent development and the equitability of the lakeside area from a social perspective.
The research used both descriptive and explanatory methods and data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The sample to collect the data were targeting on the residents in selected Kebeles, randomly selected local and foreign tourists, Different officials of the region and the city by adopting purposive sampling techniques.
The findings obtained that 38.67 hectare of land were allocated for 14 investors along the lake till this study were conducted through lease and negotiation. The developments going on along the lakeside do not assure publicness and most of the accesses are blocked and the sizes of public spaces found along the lake are getting reduced. Furthermore, the future of the rest of the public spaces has become uncertain. In this regard the study suggests that, the local government should develop rules and regulations to properly prepare and implement a lakefront plan. Besides, genuine public participation is mainly recommended at different level to address equitability for the natural resource. Moreover the blocked public spaces should be opened as per the design proposal presented in this study or based on other detail studies
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Bahir Dar City