*Public Minister Woods receives the master plan from JICA Representative

By Nat Nyuan-Bayjay

Following years of civil devastation, Monrovia’s damaged and limited urban facilities will soon be restored. This was revealed during a seminar conducted on the final draft report of a master plan Tuesday, which was presented to the Minister of Public Works of Liberia Samuel Kofi Woods, II.

The Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), which began a study of the entire city over a year ago handed over the map of how Monrovia would look under the master plan to the Minister, showing the restoration and improvement of the Capital’s basic urban facilities over the next decade.

The JICA has spent one year conducting intensive surveys of Greater Monrovia’s urban facilities including its water, land, transport, sanitation, population, storm water drainage among other sectors all drawn under the master plan study.

It is an established fact that the nation’s capital, probably built for an inhabitant range of not more than 300,000 residents is now over-populated with 1.3 million inhabitants—more than two and a half times the population the city can actually contain. The increasing and unbearable population has led to the city being over-stretched, coupled with the civil war’s own devastation of the city’s already limited facilities that have made life in Monrovia more of an inconvenience.

Minister Woods, making the opening speech at the seminar said the issue of urgent urbanization is a necessity. “Urgent urbanization becomes a necessity following years of severe decay and deterioration, accelerated by neglect and abuse of our national infrastructures including road, power generation and water supply”, said the Public Works boss.

According to him, the study of the master plan is the fruit of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s visit to Japan in 2007 at which time she re-established and strengthened ties with the Asian nation.

The Master Plan, which is divided into two phases, targets Greater Monrovia, which includes the Paynesville and Johnsonville areas—two large communities located outside the Capital. The two phases are characterized into Output of Phase I, which ran from November, 2008 to April, 2009 and Output of Phase II, which ran from November, 2009 to September, 2009.

The objectives of the Master Plan, Minister Woods explained, are to compile the plan for urban facilities in Monrovia and to implement transfer of technology to the compilation of the plan among counterpart agencies of the Liberian government.

Giving the overview of the Master Plan during Tuesday’s seminar, the Chief Representative of the Ghana JICA Office, Mr. Kunihiro Yamuchai said the data should be widely used by the international partners in the future to ensure that the City of Monrovia is upgraded to the standard of a modern city. “The Master Plan focuses on development”, the JICA chief said.

The Master Plan, according to the Japanese executive, encompasses both the short-term and long-term. The short-term targets 2014 while the long-term has the year 2019 as its target after which time the urban facilities of the entire Greater Monrovia are expected to be restored and improved.

There are also proposed projects that will be undertaken by JICA alongside the Ministry of Public Works. The narrow and expansive Somalia Drive which stretches from the Freeport of Monrovia to the commercial district of the Red Light Market will be extended to a two-lane drive, the Master Plan revealed on Tuesday. It was also revealed that the Gabriel Tucker Bridge, widely known as the New or Johnson Street Bridge that connects Central Monrovia to the industrial sector of Bushrod Island, will be expanded.

Somalia Drive is an essential route that passes through the ever-increasing populated townships of Gardnesville and Paynesville, thereby serving as a vital link for the thousands of residents in the two large communities to another commercial district in Duala and Central Monrovia. When implemented, the expanded New Bridge will ease the regular traffic congestions at the bridge, especially during the rush hours.

Monrovia’s water, land, transport, sanitation, and storm water drainage sectors are very poor and are highly attributable to the City’s relatively-inconvenient lifestyle experienced daily by its over one million inhabitants. The surveys conducted by the Japanese group in these sectors will help to bring relief to the capital when fully implemented.

-END-