Give us space to breathe!
WORKU BELACAHEW
 

Tadele Hordoffa,75, is a resident in Addis. He used to engage in his own private business before retiring some seven years from now, due to health reasons. To him it is too difficult to stay the entire day at home. His daily routine begins in visiting the nearby chapel for a morning prayer. Then the prolonged traditional coffee ceremony at his home together with other minor activities he engages himself in help him spend his time. But, he expresses staying  the time between 4 and 1pm at home as horrible.  'For a person of my own age walking or sitting  by the road sides have both recreational and health values,' he said. However,  from my residence around Saris till  Meskel square you could not get any rest stops by the road sides, I expected that the construction of the exchange road around Gottera might bring us comfortable green space with certain recreational facilities, of course it has open space in the middle, but still goes without any infrastructures, I tell you the capital is not suitable for persons like me ” he adds.
    

Bezawit Alemu, 7, lives with her parents around Megenagna. She long awaited the conclusion of this school year. This is not because she hate going to school, but her parents promised to buy a bicycle for her if she scores good marks and promoted from Upper kindergarten to grade one. The tot luckily did scoring the highest rank from her class and won the promised bicycle. No one, however, predicted that they have no safe place in their compound to ride the bicycle. Sadly, nor it is available in their neighborhood. All the previous open spaces which served as a play field have been occupied.

    

The 125 years diplomatic hub of Africa and capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, is getting its rebirth. The capital's previous defining characters like shanty and slum neighborhoods now see a light of redevelopment as these places turn to high rise condominium houses. Roads of various kinds are constructed or are under construction. Yet the city's development is not a fully-fledged one-many agree. There is a symptom of increasing concrete jungle in the capital. Most places which were reserved for public space are engulfed by illegal constrictions. Similarly, many of the spaces which are  delineated for green areas are not developed while some of the parks with good facilities are unable to give services. The trend completely against the capital's master plan that envisaged to create safe and livable city. 
    

Abebaw Sentie is director of Urban Planing and Information Institute at the Addis Ababa City Administration explains; Environmental Protection is among the grand components of the city's already concluded ten years master plan. This is a generic term which include main social and municipal services include festival, trade fair, sport and recreation, green areas near rivers, parks, cemetery, fire brigade and so on. To mention, but few of them,  festival sites like Jan meda the largest available open space in the north-east;  a place around  Hana Mariam in the west and there is also a place reserved for same purpose  in the east around CMC. To put it in figures 40%  (around 22000 hectares) of the total land  mass (54 000hectars) was reserved to serve these purposes, Abebaw added. This time the revision of the capital's master plan is on its way. Surely, it helps us get the prevailing conditions of these places as we will collect data pertinent to that. But, our general  evaluation has indicated that most of the open spaces are either grabbed for illegal construction or do not get the appropriate attention by the concerned authorities.
    

Abebaw also unveils that due to the traditional settlement in Addis some of the places near the river sides already populated. According to him it needs a huge budget to relocate the settlers. Being this the fact, not a few of the  river sides are consumed by illegal housing constructions.
   

 In his Masters thesis titled Open space provision in residential areas: critical evaluation of selected cases in Addis Ababa (July 2005)   Architect Yeneneh Chanelew identified certain issues which  had to be addressed regarding residential open spaces in the capital. To mention but few;  the various city plans of the capital overlooked the importance of open space particularly in residential areas which could have been considered as an integral part of the open space system of the city. As a result, the spaces were disconnected or given loose function. Thus, he suggested the consideration of compressive city plan that reinstate the already available open spaces. According to him the provision of open space would be best when it is matched with the spacial need of inhabitants and the role of the open space. More importantly, he argued that a detailed urban and landscape design guideline has an escalated importance in determining the location of open spaces,the management of facilities in it like; seats,street lights, telephone booths,fountains and so on. The availability and proper management of these facilities would increase the number of people enjoy and stay in these places,he wrote. 
    

Yeneneh  said the capital has registered a good progress than it was seven years from now when he conducted his masters thesis. Yet, the absence of aforesaid guideline is felt as there is hardly  successful open space in the city. Still, there are opportunities to provide Addis with successful open spaces, according to him. For one thing, we can model best practices from other successful cities. Not only that, there are also many bad experiences of other cities. Thus, it is possible to draw the best out of these. He also perceives the redevelopment works as good opportunities to reallocate open spaces.
    

From the practices, observed in the capital it is easy to infer the absence of  a proper guideline to manage open spaces. The relatively green belt parks which are enriched by the famous business man Sheikh Al-Amoudi at Minelik II avenue; Africa and Millennium parkd, for instance are still closed for public use, only one of them Addis Ababa park is serving. Due to that the facilities in the other two parks are spoiling. On the other street par,k around Sidest Kilo, near ministry of finance and economic development, anonymous body posted a plate read 'no entrance' on one of the trees. Many play grounds in most neighborhoods are engulfed for high rise buildings. Leave aside that, pedestrians are getting hard time hustling with vehicles  as high rise buildings compete the side walks for parking lot.
    

Various researches support the notion that open spaces offer health benefits through giving residents mental relief from the stress of concrete jungle urban life. People can be a passive participants of green space through watching birds and listening to their songs, getting fresh breeze and  spend time sitting or reading. Besides,  when open spaces are attractive and accessible, people are more likely to be active participants on the places like engaging in physical activities which directly improve their health.  Yeneneh also builds on  that saying; there are general  indicators as small kids and youngsters are full of energy. Thus, the availability of well managed play fields are means to release this energy. Besides, it is children's behaviors to play. Open spaces  also comforts senior citizens, pensioners, people with disabilities. City is not only the road and buildings, green value itself is part and parcel of a standard city, he concludes.