THE Minister for Lands, Housing & Survey Hon. Moses Garu says our provincial centres have continued to lag behind in terms of physical urban development for decades.
He made the statement while opening the first Solomon Islands National Urban Conference (SINUC) held at the Mendana Hotel in Honiara, on Monday.
“For so long there has been disconnection between Honiara and the provincial centres in many aspect of urban development.
“The basic institutions like the provincial towns and country planning boards have been non-functioning for quite a long time. Some as long as two decades of inactivity,” he said.
He said that officers were sent to the provinces without orders or direction to know what they are supposed to be doing.
“This has left the provincial physical planning to drift in the ocean without a rudder for guidance and without a GPS to know where they are going.”
Mr Garu said that while there has been so much enthusiasm and attention given to the provincial and rural level development in terms of policy approach and resources, provincial centres continue to lag behind in its physical urban progress.
“The urban planning regimes are almost non-existent leaving developments to go ahead without proper assessment of the suitability of those developments to their settings, adding there is a lack of good urban planning and design.”
At the same time, Minister Gharu welcomed the provincial government representatives, chairman of provincial boards and provincial planners and lands officers who attended the summit.
“These have been our agents in the provinces whom for long time felt disconnected from the services the Ministry is offering to the country in terms of planning and development of urban lands,’ he said.
The three day SINUC will end tomorrow.
By STEPHEN DIISANGO
