Addis Abeba Planning Commission drafted a bill to establish a new agency that will oversee six institutions engaged in greenery and biodiversity conservation.
The new agency will be named Addis Ababa River & Green Development Agency and will be accountable for the Office of the City’s General Manager.
It will oversee Addis Ababa Rivers & Riverside Development Project Office (AARDPO), Gullele Botanic Garden, Entoto Natural Park, Addis Ababa City Beautification, Park & Cemetery Development Agency, Addis Ababa Parks Development Administration Office and Addis Lion Zoo.
All the six institutions will be directly accountable to the Agency, centralising the former system. Part of them is accountable for the Addis Ababa City Administration Environment Authority, while the others are accountable for the Office of the City’s General Manager and the remaining for the Mayor’s Office.
“In addition to centralising the works of these institutions, the new body will play a pivotal role in solving the overlapping assignments of the institutions,” said Debella Beru, deputy head of the ARDPO.
The Commission has been drafting the proclamation for the past year along with the representatives from the six institutions. And it has delivered it to the Urban Development & Environmental Protection Affairs standing committee of the Addis Ababa City Council, consisting of 138 seats.
The Standing Committee sent the draft to the six institutions and gathered their comments to finalise the draft. Stakeholder agencies submitted their feedbacks to the standing committee two weeks ago.
The draft is expected to be tabled for approval after incorporating the comments from the institutions, according to Haile Fiseha, general manager of the City Council.
“Stakeholder institutions forwarded points to be added, removed or amended in the bill and we will review all the points before sending it for approval,” Haile told Fortune.
The main reason for the establishment of the Agency is to better the administration of City’s Planning Commission to execute the newly approved 10th master plan of the city.
ARDPO was established two years ago with the aim of developing and revitalising rivers and riversides in the city. The project will be executed in line with the 10th master plan, which aspires to increase the number of parks from 13 to 180 and revamp the rivers and riversides of Addis.
The Riverside Project Office is currently working on revamping four rivers at the cost of 53 million Br. It is currently about to kick off constructions of a riverside project on Kechene with 400 million Br.
Addis Park was established during the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie I and has been managing cages for lions and other animals such as Gelada baboons, antelope, ducks, turtle and different types of apes. Currently, Addis Park is to expand to the new site named Peacock Park around Bole area, whose construction is under progress.
Gullele Botanic Garden was established five years ago by the city administration and Addis Abeba Universty (AAU) as a living museum for plants which would otherwise become extinct, is long over due in Ethiopia. The garden lies on 705ha of land along the outskirts of Addis Abeba.
Similarly, Entoto Natural Park’s nursery is complete with a wide variety of the indigenous vegetation including eucalyptus. It is located on the north eastern rim of Addis Abeba covering an area of 1,300ha.
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