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Hargeisa, July 24, 2004 (SL Times) – A six-month project took-off last Friday to register houses, buildings and undeveloped lands in Hargeisa, capital of the Republic of Somaliland.
According to Hargeisa's Mayor, Engineer Hussein Mohamud Jiir, the objective of the exercise is to introduce a master plan for the town, the first of its kind in Somaliland.
Hargeisa municipal council and a local NGO will implement the project jointly funded by the Nairobi-based UN-Habitat and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Jiir explained.
Satellite pictures and a research conducted in November, last year, will be used to improve efficiency in the said registration process, he added.
The target of the exercise is to obtain precise data on each household, buildings and undeveloped lands in the township with an 75,000 residents.
It will enable Hargeisa municipal officials to know the number of households with electricity, telephones and running water among others.
At the end of the registration in January 2005, each household and buildings will get official registration certificates and roads will also be named. It is also expected to improve Hargeisa municipal's revenue collection and streamline its services to cope with increasing demand.
For the past 15 years, major towns in Somaliland including Hargeisa never received any kind of support or a facelift from external organizations.
Their infrastructure was completely ruining during the clan-based civil war that erupted in Somalia during the late 1980s when virtually all records and documentation were either looted or destroyed.
Killings related to land disputes are increasing in Somaliland because some people feel they must resort to violence to protect their rights.
A policeman was killed recently in Hargeisa as he mediated between two families over a disputed piece of land.
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