Khartoum Structure Planner Shares the Plan

“There has been a thumping effort exerted in the last 17 years to improve the quality of life in Sudan but our international ranking is decreasing because the world is advancing in a ratio much greater than us” said Dr.Salah Eldin Mahmoud Osman, Executive Manager, Khartoum Structure Plan, Ministry of Physical Planning & Public Utilities of Khartoum State. Dr.Salah Eldin was speaking at Khartoum International Community School (popularly known as KICS).This was the second lecture at KICS Humanities Department Lecture Series 2009-10.

The first lecture of KICS Humanities Department Lecture Series 2009-10 was delivered by Sir Derek Plumbly earlier on 11 October and the subject was ‘The Comprehensive Peace Agreement- Problems and Prospects’. Sir Derek Pumbly the former British Ambassador is the Chairman of the Assessment and Evaluation Committee of the CPA.

‘Making Cities Work – Khartoum State’s New Structural Plan’ was the topic of the second lecture of the series held on Sunday, 8 November at 7:30 PM. Dr.Salah’s presentation  was structured in three parts namely a) ‘Where we are?’; b) ‘Definition of the problems?’ and  c) ‘Changing the Image of the City’.

Dr. Salah discussed the Human Development Indices of Sudan as compared to the other countries. The factors determining the Human Development Index as developed by UNDP are Life Expectancy; Education Index and GDP Index. These basically speak of the quality of life. Sudan is ranked 150 in Human Development Index with a value of 0.531; life expectancy at birth of 57.2 years ; adult literacy rate of 60.9%; and GDP per capita of $2,086 (Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2009). The human development index gives a more complete picture than income. The example of Vietnam was an interesting one because although the income level is low the human development index is high, a score better than Egypt and far better than Sudan. On the other hand Guinea had high income levels but low human development. The Human Development Index of Madagascar (0.54) is higher than Sudan (0.52) although the GDP Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of Madagascar is much lower at $900 compared to that of Sudan at $ 2086.

Good quality education is the key factor to boost the Human Development Index. Dr.Salah added that Sudan was far behind in IT Strategy compared to countries like India and very low in scientific publications compared to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco although the leading academicians in these Arab countries were Sudanese.

While defining the urban problems, Dr.Salah shared the statistics of Khartoum state which is 1% of Sudan in terms of area (22000sq.km) but hosts 32% of the population with 10.8 million people. Khartoum state hosts 90% of the industries in Sudan with 20% of the population in this 5000 sq.km expanse. The population density of Sudan is 9.8 persons per sq.km and only 3 persons per sq.km in n

Northern States, but 490 persons per sq.km in Khartoum and 1300 persons per sq.km in Greater Khartoum. “This demographic distribution is a problem” said Dr.Salah.

Other major challenges faced in Khartoum are continuous rural urban migration; urban governance; lack of urban recreation; un-utilized waterfronts; urban un-cleanliness; urban poverty; street children; poor quality of school infrastructure and education; urban transport and expansion of sprawl.

The greatest challenge is the methodology of planning amidst dearth of information and in involving public participation with a bottom up approach. The urban strategy is based on urban renewal, urban renovation and urban revitalization.

Eventually the objective of Khartoum Structure Plan is to change the image of the city. Did we know that Khartoum state has 180 forests? There is a plan to make Khartoum greener by replanting the forests with the help of Global Environmental Fund (GEF).

The plan is to clean Khartoum from slums and squatter by 2012 with a pro-poor policy of planning satellite villages and changing the physical appearances of houses with Stabilized Soil Blocks (SSBs) made out of mud and 2% cement. This is a cost effective technology and does not use firewood. A Kenyan professional has been imparting training in production of SSBs. SSBs are made from the surrounding soil and the block press machine costs $1000. The photographs of houses built with SSBs in Umbaddah, presented by Dr.Salah were very impressive.

Keeping Khartoum clean is vital in the plan. Khartoum generates 4000 tons of garbage every day requiring 1000m² of dumping ground daily. The composition of the garbage is 49% organic, 15% plastic and 35% others. In the renewable energy projects 49% organic waste and 10% soil can be used for fertilizers; 15% of plastic can be used for products and the residual waste can be used in Bioflame Technology to generate 2.5 MW of power from every 500 tons. This electricity generated will be equivalent to power generated by Sinnar Dam.

Most importantly the Flood Mitigation Strategy is also being worked upon by studying the logic of contour lines. Khartoum has 300km of waterfront. In order to change the image of the city there is a plan to replace the Government buildings in Nile Avenue with recreational facilities. Some Kuwaiti investment is already in place for hotels. There is a plan for two new picturesque bridges between Tuti - Omdurman and Tuti - Khartoum North. There are studies being done for trams and modern buses and transportation in river Nile. All these changes will make Khartoum a beautiful city. “To bring about this change in the image of Khartoum we need a major change in the mindset of the citizens and call for active participation in implementing the bottom up approach of Khartoum Structure Plan” said Dr.Salah Eldin Mahmoud Osman.