A Recommendations On The Effectpopulation Growth Has On The Distribution Of Land

Introduction

As the population grows so does the need for natural resources such as land which is a necessity for living sustainably. Land delivery is the process of transferring land to a natural or juristic person which is constituted by a deed since land delivery is not a physical exchange. Land is fixed in supply and will never expand to meet the needs of a growing population, as a result, population increase has adverse effects on land delivery. This is an in-depth assessment stating the legal and institutional framework in which the land delivery is carried out in Namibia, cause and effect of the land delivery process, the statistics of the population growth rate, the land delivery system currently in place and the primary focus which is the impact of population growth on land delivery. Furthermore, recommendations are set out to reduce this impact.

<2>Cumbersome land delivery process

Allocating land has become a slow-moving process due to various reasons such as the apartheid history of Namibia which caused an unequal distribution of land. There is an inadequate contribution of funds from financial sectors, as a result, the local authorities are unable to service all the land. Moreover, people do not have access to land tenure therefore they do not legally own land. The need for enhanced allocation of land rights especially in communal areas limits the access to land to individuals such as women and minority groups. Informal settlements are rapidly increasing making delivery of land rather difficult. There is no denying the fact that corruption, favoritism and nepotism take place in Namibia, this results in unfair land allocation or high prices of land for personal benefit. In support of the previously mentioned, since 2006 The City of Windhoek has serviced 23 plots in Katutura and over 2000 plots in opulent areas (Immanuel, 2017, p. 1).

Furthermore, the auctioning of land denies people with a lower income to acquire land as the land is sold for high prices. Thus, the land only becomes affordable to the people who are well off and the less fortunate, yet again, do not benefit. Lastly the high number of ownership of commercial farms by foreign nationals reduces the allocation of land to citizens.

Population growth

The current world growth rate is 1.09% and the population is about 7.7 billion which is expected to reach 8 billion people by 2023 (Worldometers, 2018). Narrowing it down to Namibia, the current population is about 2,599,827, the growth rate is roughly 2.13% and the total land area is 823,290 km while 48.2% of the population lives in the urban area (Worldometers, Namibia Population (2018) - Worldometers, 2018). The causes of population growth is a reduced mortality rate due to factors such as better medical facilities and a high birth rate which could be due to poverty as children are seen as a source of income and immigrants entering the country.[image: ]The chart above indicates the population increment from 1991 to 2011 (4kpics.rocks, 2018)

Impact of population growth of land delivery

People are stirred into informal settlements and rental markets. Due to population growth, the needs of the people increase. The quest for better opportunities by people leads to urban migration causing urban growth. Consequently, a strain is placed on basic infrastructure such as housing and land. This causes the demand for land to increase and because the urban area and local authorities cannot cater for a vast growing population, there is a low supply. Due to the high demand and low supply of land, land is difficult to acquire. In addition, it causes the prices of housing to soar. This leads to the rapid population increment in informal settlements and rental markets. There are numerous shortcomings with regards to the rise in population in informal settlements such as the need for the adequate services. Furthermore, these settlements are usually on the outskirts of the urban area, thus it can cause urban land expansion which modifies habitats, biogeochemistry, hydrology, land cover... (d’Amour, et al., 2017). The prices of the rental market is also increasing.

Limited access to land

Access to land is restricted to facilitate the needs of the growing population due to the shortage of serviced land. The existence of abandoned and unserviced land is due to the lack of funds to the local authority from the financial sector (Kazapua, 2015, pp. 2-3), thus the City of Windhoek relies on private developers for servicing land, in conjunction, the Massive Urban Land Servicing project steered by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Developent aids with the servicing of land.The table below indicates the number of serviced land in 11 towns from 2014 to 2017. (Immanuel, 2017, p. 1)

The number of serviced land compared to the number of housing applications which increases by 10 000 (Immanuel, 2017, p. 1) annually shows the impact that population growth has on land allocation as the need for land is not being met especially in the city which has the highest population but very few serviced land.

Land grabbing and squatting

With the high demand for land, the number of people applying for a piece of land drastically increases. The cumbersome process of land allocation and unfair distribution makes people desperate and impatient and they therefore resort to illegally occupying land. The land acquired lacks services such as sewerage and water supply and is situated at hazardous areas such as flood prone areas. This land is also not registered therefore the risk for eviction is high.