and use it.”
— Jane Jacobs (in Anderson-Oliver, 2018)
School children drawing their daily routes in a workshop in Chuini, Zanzibar Town.
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CHAPTER 5Urban sprawl has invaded valuable agricultural land and water catchment and reten-tion areas, and together with the impacts of climate change, has led to environmental problems, particularly flooding, in many urban areas in Zanzibar. One such area is Chuini on the northern outskirts of Zanzibar Town. This chapter presents the existing plans for the development of Chuini and gives an overview of the characteristics of the area through observations made during site visits on the field trip to Zanzibar. The chapter also presents the results of the inhabitant and stakeholder engagement carried out during the trip. The chapter concludes by summarising aspects to consider in the development of Chuini.
5.1 Existing urban plans
Urban planning in Zanzibar Town is guided by ZanPlan, which is a master plan con-ducted in 2015 and covers approximately 280 km2 in the town centre and its immediate periphery (Map 1). ZanPlan (2015, p. 153–4) proposes Ng’ambo (the ‘other side’ in Kiswahili, east of the Creek Road that runs along the eastern side of Stone Town), as the new, modern city centre to complement the historical city centre of Stone Town.
The plan expresses a need for a series of other centres and sub-centres to ease pressure from the city centre and to serve local demand. The master plan proposes three new urban centres: Bububu Urban Centre near the SUZA (State University of Zanzibar) northern campus and an existing military hospital (to be extended to serve as a major civilian hospital), Tunguu Urban Centre next to the SUZA eastern campus and pro-posed hospital, and Fumba Urban Centre at the confluence of residential areas and an industrial zone. In addition to these three major urban centres, six sub-centres have been envisioned, of which three in the Inner City and three along the corridors. (Ibid.) ZanPlan addresses many sustainability issues. For example, it proposes a minimum of three million trees to exist in the master plan area to counterbalance the carbon emis-sions of the projected 1.5 million inhabitants of the town in the future (ZanPlan, 2015, p. 157). Existing forest coverage of 5 km² is to be extended to 11 km² by 2035, but the coverage of mangroves is expected to remain the same, 6 km² (Ibid., p. 227). The plan defines a constraint for development along the beachfront: development is pro-hibited 50 metres from the coastline and additionally, development proposals within 200 metres from the coastline are subject to environmental impact assessment (Ibid., p. 33). If there are streams in an area that is planned to be constructed, development is restricted in a 30-metre perimeter from the streams (Ibid., p.342). The master plan also encourages the development of suitable lanes dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles.
Walking is still today the most popular mode of transport in Zanzibar and almost half of daily trips are made by walking. Public transport accounts for a quarter of all daily trips according to a survey in 2013. (Ibid., p. 125–126.)
ZanPlan (2015, p. 86) reports that agriculture currently retains half of the landmass in the overall plan area and claims that there is significant potential for densification as only 7 % of the overall plan area is built and in residential areas the coverage is only
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CHAPTER 5
BUBUBU
TUNGUU NG’AMBO
FUMBA
FUMBA NORTH FUONI MWANAKWEREKWE
AMANI STONE
TOWN
MAZAZINI CHUINI
Map 1. Zanzibar Master Plan area in Unguja
New urban centre New sub-centre Master plan area
Map 2.
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CHAPTER 520 %. According to the report, Zanzibar Town could house a population of at least one million within its current built area (Ibid., p. 88). Residential uses, including local ser-vices, infrastructure and public space, account for 81% of the built areas with public services and limited public space (combined 9%), economic (4.7%) and infrastructur-al uses (>5%, accounting for the binfrastructur-alance) (2015, p. 86).
Map 2 zooms into the master plan area showing the current and future city centres of Zanzibar Town and the proposed new urban centre of Bububu and the proposed sub-centre of Chuini. Bububu is located to the north of Zanzibar Town centre. Accord-ing to ZanPlan (2015, p. 340–1), it is a rapidly urbanisAccord-ing area, but lacks structure, order, and form. The area between Malawi Road — main road running from Zanzibar Town to the north of the island — and the coastline is undeveloped. Currently there is a large zone of agricultural land in the north of the area. There are many separate residential areas, which are characterised as either sporadic or moderate in density and there is a large military area including a military hospital. Along the beach there are informal fishing villages, and some restaurants and bars. There are also sporadic com-mercial elements along the main road. Proposed activities to the new urban centre area include a civic centre, a bus terminal, park facilities, an industrial zone, wholesale and retail markets, retail shopping, public services, an emergency services centre, sports facilities, and open spaces (Ibid., p. 343).
The focus of this thesis is an area called Chuini which lies just north of Bububu. Chu-ini comprises two shehias (the smallest admChu-inistrative unit in Zanzibar): ChuChu-ini and Kihinani. The name Chuini is used in this thesis to refer to the whole area covering both shehias. Chuini is assigned as a sub-centre and it is designated for rapid devel-opment, providing housing, services, and livelihoods to the increasing population of the area. According to ZanPlan (2015, p. 211–2), the plan area in Chuini comprises over 900 ha and currently houses 10,000 people with a target population of 91,000 in 2035. The master plan assigns the area to be developed mainly into a residential area:
46 % low density, 34 % moderate density, and 20 % high density housing (Ibid.). See Appendix I for the proposed master plan in Chuini.
According to the National Spatial Development Strategy (DoURP, 2014), Chuini lies in an area that is defined as valuable agricultural area, where the soil type is suitable for cultivation, and east of Malawi Road in Chuini there is also a significant aquifer.
Development on this kind of land should take into consideration the economic and environmental effects of the proposed plans (Ibid.). Alarmingly, ZanPlan proposes the currently existing over 600 ha of agricultural land in Chuini to be given up for development (ZanPlan, 2015, p. 212), without restrictions or notions of the area’s vulnerability as wetland (see Appendix I). The loss of agricultural land would also signify the loss of livelihood to many farmers in Chuini. It would further complicate retaining storm water to mitigate flooding and threaten the capability of the area to recharge the aquifer.
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CHAPTER 5
CHUINI
KIHINANI
STONE TOWN
MASINGINI FOREST
MANGROVES
CHUINI
BUBUBU
NG’AMBO
Map 3.
N
1000 m
Map 2. Zanzibar Town
1:50 000
Main road Stream Forest Shehias Buildings
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CHAPTER 55.2 Field observations in Chuini
A more detailed picture of the case study area in Chuini was formed through seven site visits. Each visit included walking in different parts of the case study area to appreciate the variations in landscape and functions. Mapping and photographing were used to document the characteristics of the scenery and architecture, public spaces and impor-tant landmarks, and spots for different activities (Map 3). The visits were arranged on different days of the week and different times of the day to form an idea of changing activities taking place. Additionally, traffic was counted on three occasions to get a grip on the intensity of traffic on the main road going through the area (Figure 11). The main characteristics of Chuini are portrayed in Figure 12.
Figure 11. Traffic counting on Malawi Road in Chuini. Red illustrates the bus-iest hour for each means of transport and green shows the average of each to make comparison between them easier. While walking is the most popular means of transport in Zanzibar, this counting exercise illustrates how poor the pedestrian access is along the main road running through Chuini.
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