Survey finds Monarch over populated with poor sanitation
A Francistown city council survey, conducted in collaboration with United Nations Habitat initiative, has found one of Ghetto’s oldest locations, Monarch, to be overcrowded and struggling with poor sanitation.
The Participatory Slums Upgrading Programme (PSUP) is a scheme aimed at improving poor structural quality of housing, overcrowding, inadequate access to safe water, inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure and unsecure residential status within cities.
Speaking at last week’s full council meeting, Mayor Gaone Majere revealed that together with the Department of Town and Country Planning and Botswana Homeless and Poor People’s Federation, they have completed Monarch’s enumeration and profiling.
A total of 1, 359 households participated in the survey, with the outcome showing overcrowding and poor sanitation conditions.
“A workshop is scheduled on 30 June at Monarch Kgotla to give feedback to the community and come up with visioning and action plan for the identified challenges,” he added.
The Mayor urged residents and stakeholders to continue working together to achieve Sustainable Development Goal of adequate, safe and affordable housing.
“Housing is more than just a physical structure: it is a basic human need! It provides shelter, security, and a foundation upon which individuals and families can build their lives and thrive,” declared the second city’s first citizen.
Mayor Majere said government is well aware of this and has since launched Bonno Housing Programme, a ‘bold and compassionate security’ for low and middle-income households.
The programme boasts three distinct schemes: Bonno Turnkey, Home Improvement and the Bonno D4 Scale and Belowor equivalent schemes.
According to Majere, since the start of the current financial year in April, they have funded eight beneficiaries, five under the Turnkey scheme and three through Home Improvement.
“These numbers represent more than just statistics, they mark real lives transformed, families uplifted, and hope restored,” he said, urging members of the community to visit the council office to learn more about the schemes in order to take advantage of them.
