This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
Published on June 11, 2020, a housing project in Nairobi's Ngara estate has been classified as high risk due to its potential impact on the environment and human population.
The project, which involves the construction of 1,800 affordable housing units, has been deemed a high-risk project by environmental consultants. This classification is in line with a legal notice published by the Ministry of Environment in 2016, which requires projects that bring about major changes in land use to be classified as high risk.
The project, a public-private partnership between the Nairobi county government and developers, aims to provide affordable housing units to residents. However, the classification as a high-risk project means that the contractors will have to adhere to strict measures to mitigate the negative social and environmental impacts.
According to an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) report, the project's potential impact on the natural environment and human environment is significant but can be addressed and mitigated. The report noted that the scoping exercise acknowledged that the project's impacts are significant and are hardly reversible but mostly localised.
The project will comprise 12 blocks of 14 storeys, with 65% of the units allocated to government social housing and 35% to private, low-cost housing units. The residents who previously occupied the Jeevanjee and Bachelors Estates received a stipend of Sh600,000 to look for alternative accommodation and were given priority in the allocation of houses when the new project is completed.
