The Minister of State in charge of Territorial Development and Planning, Guy Loando, announced, during a briefing co-hosted with the Minister in charge of Communication and Media Patrick Muyaya, that the government of the Republic had decided to put an end to the misuse of the physical space of the Democratic Republic of Congo to avoid floods, landslides and other natural disasters.
This announcement follows the floods that hit the country in Kinshasa and particularly in South Kivu, causing hundreds of deaths and several missing. The government wants to put in place a land-use planning policy aimed at combating natural disasters and providing the country with a well-developed territory.
The local populations, often affected by these disasters, must realize that anarchic construction can have dramatic consequences and that the land must obey logic and regulations. For this, the government intends to raise public awareness as soon as the law on land use planning is promulgated.
The authorities also announced a special commission to relay the testimonies and work with the families affected in order to draw up a toll of the dead and missing. The government has also sent a delegation there to help the families and see what needs to be done.
At the same time, the humanitarian situation is catastrophic in Kalehe, where the floods have been deadly. According to the authorities, the anarchic construction of the local populations is partly responsible for this drama.
The government of the DRC is currently working on the establishment of a land use planning policy to avoid this kind of disaster in the future, but also to allow the population to live peacefully and so that the country can really experience by 2050 a territory that is well developed