The Prime Minister Mr. Pakalitha Mosisili says it is every government's responsibility to ensure that people have decent homes of their own.

Speaking at the sod turning ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of middle and low income earners housing at Ha Lepolesa, Maseru Urban on Wednesday, Mr. Mosisili said it is important that people have well planned residential sites for the improvement of their lives and the country.

He said many developing countries particularly in the SADC region, are faced with a challenge of providing planned residential sites to their people, saying that Lesotho is not an exception as reports show that 72 percent of people in the country's townships, resides at unplanned villages that do not have water, electricity and toilets.

He commended the Lesotho government of 1989, which engaged in planning of sites where houses were constructed in places like Khubetsoana, Mohalalitoe, Phahameng in Mafeteng and Maputsoe.

The sod turning serves to maintain the work done by previous governments and Lesotho will only develop by continuing and improving developments started by the previous governments, the Prime Minister said.

He further noted that in this project, the Lesotho Housing and Development Corporation (LHLDC) will work together with Shelter Africa, a Bank in Nairobi, Kenya that deals with house construction in Africa, while local banks will assist by providing loans to the people who would like to buy houses.

The project will cost M40 million, which will be used to build 396 houses and first priority will be given to middle and low income earners, he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, the Minister of Local Government, Dr Ponts’o Sekatle said there is a need to preserve the country's remaining land for agriculture as most of the land has been eroded.

She said the Ministry has requested Community Councilors to stop allocating sites on unplanned land, noting that LHLDC basic task is to construct houses for people, not to allocate land. She added that they have agreed with the corporation to build houses at the developed and planned sites so to sell them to members of the public who may wish to buy them.

Dr Sekatle noted that lack of proper planning in many areas hinder developments like construction of roads for free movement and provision of essential services like water, electricity and telephones.

LHLDC is aimed at promoting development and improving the lives of the people through provision of houses.

Source: LENA 17/04/2008