Addis Ababa is glorified and adored in many of the local songs in the city.
“Oh! Addis Ababa, Oh Arada, does one crave to see you, as if one years to see his loved ones one”
Majestically perched under the foots of Entoto, Yeka and other two hills, Addis Ababa enjoys a natural beauty for more than 100 years since its establishment in 1887.
Addis Ababa is glorified and adored in many of the local songs in the city.
“Oh! Addis Ababa, Oh Arada, does one crave to see you, as if one years to see his loved ones one”
In spite of being near the equator, the temperatures never get much hot. Indeed, even in the city’s most sultry month, the normal temperature is just 25 degrees, and the city’s highest temperature is just 32-degree Celsius. The average elevation of the city is 2400 masl.
The city has witnessed remarkable changes over the last 28 years but has never experienced a massive change in a single year as it did over the last one year.
This is a de facto capital city of Africa and the seat of the AU, more than 80 embassies and chanceries representing their countries and regional organizations naturally expects lot from the city government.
Addis Ababa City Government embraced the national reform program by taking swift development measures like retrieving illegally owned urban lands from the trespassers of the law.
Among other things, the reform program launched by the city government focused on the modernization of revenue collection system by way of easing the hustle that the tax payers experience while they report at the taxing stations to pay their taxes.
The reports from the city government indicate that it had planned to collect over 20 million Birr in taxes in 6 months and managed to collect more than 18 million with better performance over the same period of the same year.
The city government has originally planned to set aside 2 billion Birr to be used as a revolving fund for creating income generation schemes targeting the youth in the city.
Furthermore, the city was entrusted with managing and implementing the greening and beautification of Addis Ababa on the range of 56 kilometers alongside the major rivers and tributaries cross cutting the city with a budget of about 39 billion Birr.
The La Gare integrated community development that was lunched project in capital Addis Ababa is another government private sector partnership launched by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed in which Eagle Hills, an Abu Dhabi-based private real estate development company will construct on 360,000 square meters at the cost of 50 billion birr.
It was noted that, the project will have 4,000 residences, 3 hotels, office buildings and other outdoor service areas creating jobs for 25,000 people. It was reported that the construction of the first phase of project will be finalized within three years. The project will take a total of seven year for completion.
Last month Horizon Plantation Ethiopia Plc, a subsidiary of MIDROC Investment Group has agreed and signed contracts for the construction of bakery and flour factory in Addis Ababa. The factory, which is the first of its kind in the country, will have the capacity to produce 80,000 loaves of bread per hour.
Once completed, the factory will supply 100 grams of loaf of bread to the market for 0.75 Ethiopian birr. This project will certainly help to resolve the skyrocketing of prices for bread with far better quality. This is part of the government private partnership scheme to add up to the development programs of the city.
The city government has built huge block of condos but due to the unexpected arguments on border issues between the city government and Oromia Regional State it became impossible to transfer more than 51 thousand houses to the needy population.
In his speech, Abiy revealed that consistent with its principle of giving and serving, his government has been renovating over 400 schools, 10 hospitals, and more than 1000 homes in the capital city this rainy season alone.
Besides, he stated that exercise books and uniforms are readied to be distributed to more than 600,000 students in the coming academic year.
Addis Ababa has always remained a city of vivid contrasts. Huge private and government buildings and skyscrapers have been built while more others are under construction. On the other hand, there are huge slum areas that need to be rehabilitated by the city government over the course of this year and the coming years.
The city government is also trying to resolve the alarming traffic jam in the city by taking well researched measures to ease the situation and ensure safe and smooth traffic flow. It is to be noted that Addis Ababa has also banned motorcycles from the city’s roads as part of the effort to reduce traffick congestions on the city’s roads effective July 7.
The restriction is reportedly needed to prevent robbery being committed using motorbike, according to the deputy mayor of the city. However, the ban is not applicable to embassies and Ethiopian Postal Service Enterprise and those with special permits.
Recently, the major of the city consulted with local banks in the city on programs that focus on creating an enabling environment for the youth by establishing income generating schemes.
The Central Statistics Agency denotes that more than 10 million people are currently unemployed in Ethiopia, including 406,000 in the capital Addis Ababa. And 200,000 of them are youth.
The newly commissioned Adwa Museum whose construction is to kick off soon in the center of the city will not only add beauty to the city but is also expected to serve as a recreation and research center for historians who would like to write on the history of the Battle of Adwa and the history of this country in general.
In my opinion, the yearlong achievement of the city indicates the potentials it possesses for further development of urban tourism in which hundreds and thousands of the youth in the city could be involved.
Over the previous year and until recently Addis Ababa has hosted a number of international conferences and symposiums
As stated earlier, Addis Ababa has a natural beauty but this beauty is being tarnished with lack of proper sanitation and sewage disposal systems that to a certain degree is affecting the state of public health in the city. The reform program in the city is yet to unfold with more shining results but there are still loopholes and shortfalls in the service delivery system in the city.
For instance despite the effort the city is making in keeping the streets, business centers and residential areas as tidy as possible, it has been difficult to match the city with its name.
Although the city government is making tangible efforts in keeping out adulterated and fake commodities like roof tins and food items, the public seems to act as indifferent spectators when such crimes are committed at daylight. The city is expected to systematically mobilize the public on the ways and means of curbing such heinous acts.
Addis Ababa is ready to plant more than 2 million tree seedlings in a single day in different parts of the city as part of the national call made by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed in a couple of days. This would naturally add to the improvement of the ecosystem in the city.
Besides, thousands of youth are already mobilized in the city to participate on citywide volunteer services in education, health, traffic management and on a number of voluntary services that are already designed by the city government.
Addis Ababa has indeed a private future. It is to be noted that all the achievements mentioned above were conducted in the midst sporadic unrests that flared up earlier in the city. The reform program in Addis Ababa is still unfolding.
The Ethiopian Herald July 26/2019
BY SOLOMON DIBABA