The 2008/2009 cholera outbreak in Harare, Zimbabwe: case of failure in urban environmental health and planning.

This paper reviews and reflects on the cholera outbreak that rocked Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2008/2009. We give special attention to the root causes, impacts and debates made by key stakeholders, indicating the political and geographical responses. Based on a desktop study and documentary review, the paper highlights the inadequacy of safe and clean water in most of the suburbs, the collapse of the waste management, water supply and sanitation systems of the city as the major explanations for the scourge. Despite this, Harare remains troubled with the shortage of purification chemicals, making it quite impossible to supply clean and adequate water. The national economic crisis also had a strong bearing against the performance of the public health sector. The paper concludes that sustainable urban health initiatives involving both central and local government will provide a long-term solution to the problems highlighted.

Answering to the domesticability of exotic options and strategies in managing Africa's urban landscapes for sustainability beyond 2015.

This study aims at critically assessing the land management strategies that can be instrumental in bringing sound governance to urban landscapes in Africa with the view of mapping the potential, minimum conditions for success and constraints to doing so. This study is qualitative by approach and case study based by design, assesses practices in land management from a few cities (Nairobi, Abuja, Harare, Kigali, Johannesburg and Addis Ababa). Peculiarities and differences in the practices of land management in these cities is the basis for their purposeful selection. The evaluation of the land management practices in these cities is in terms of the current realities and the possibility for the acceptability of new, exotic but deemed sustainable urban land management styles. Noted strongly in this current discourse is that Africa is a region with varied of contexts requiring a critical assessment of issues before policy strategies are implemented in terms of land tenure, land administration corruption, political will and receptivity of the so-called foreign philosophies in urban land governance. The study recommends relevant training of the land and planning experts in Africa. In addition, there is general need to balance between 'place prosperity' with 'people prosperity' as they relate to land management noting that space and capital make the difference in sustainable human habitats' creation and management.