Government has previously revealed that the pace of servicing land continued to hamper allocations. Inflated land servicing costs which lead to delays forced the government to introspect and a waiver was made to continue allocating land even before servicing. Even after the waiver still, the government’s worry about allocating unserviced land was that it would not fully address the situation as the land would still need to be serviced eventually. The government has always linked the problem to water scarcity in the country, saying aridity made land servicing all the more difficult.
In an interview with this publication this week, BATLA president Johane Chenjekwa said the noticeable increase in plot allocations across all Land Boards in the past year was as a result of the waiver among others. “While it is desirable that land should be serviced before allocation, the process of servicing land naturally slows down the allocation of land because of the time taken to construct and/or install infrastructure that constitutes land servicing such as tarred roads, water and sewage pipes, electricity lines and stormwater drainage systems,” he said. Furthermore, Chenjekwa pointed out that such land servicing presents an enormous financial challenge to government because full land servicing that includes the above-mentioned services is estimated to cost about P180,000 to P190,000 per plot.
