Nasarawa State Urban Development Board (NUDB), says the state government has ordered proper gazetting and review of urban planning to create enabling, healthy and comfortable environment for inhabitants.
Managing Director of the Board, Mohammed Yahaya, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital.
The Managing director, who said before now there has never been a master plan in any of the cities in Nasarawa State, noted that a master plan has been designed based on the existing environment.
According to him, the importance of town planning cannot be overemphasized, considering the fact that it is expected to create enabling environment, healthy, peaceful, and comfortability for inhabitants.
“When we talk about urban, we are talking about the areas with higher population, and as long as the population keeps growing, all basic necessities are required to be made available so that it will make the environment livable, peaceful and healthy.
“With planning, development increases, then there is a need to do some review. It is only when that is done we can have a comfortable and planned environment.
“And that is what brings the concept of urban renewal or slum upgrade because it is an existing development. For you to provide the improvement, you need to do some amendments, demolitions, and modifications,” he said.
Yahaya said the board is doing its best to ensure that any new development gives a befitting design in an appropriate and compatible environment.
“When you bring a design you want to build an industry in a residential dominated area, we make sure there is compatibility, there’s similarity for our town as at now,” he emphasised.
On issues of floods, he said the state government had approved the construction of a 1. 3 kilometer of a water channel in Lafia, and about five major drains to be constructed that were already in the budget to ensure that damage course by heavy downpour is taken care of.
He warned people to avoid development on waterways but rather seek approval before embarking on any development so that they would not constitute obstruction and nuisance to the community.
“It is mandatory to get approval before embarking on development. We are calling on people with billboards and signage that do not have the approval of the board to quickly do that this week. Unfailingly we will start removing such billboards,” he warned.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that world town planning day is annually celebrated on the 8th of November. This year’s theme is “Think Global, Plan Local”.
It takes a look at the role of the planning profession as central to the implementation at the local level of the new urban agenda and UN-Habitat Sustainable Development Goals.