Over 40 projects yet to be completed due to way-leave issues |21 July 2020

The interviewees at yesterday’s press conference (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Over 40 projects are yet to be completed in numerous districts on Mahe, Praslin and La Digue due to delays caused by way-leave issues.

This was revealed during a joint press conference at the International Conference Centre (ICCS) by the Ministry of Habitat, Infrastructure and Land Transport; Ministry of Finance, Investment, Trade and Economic Planning Seychelles Land Transport Authority (SLTA) and department of local government.

The delay in receiving way-leave is an increasing concern for the government since it affects timely implementation of capital projects.

Way-leaves are often delayed due to landowners who are reluctant to have their land encroached on, land that has multiple owners who cannot reach a compromise or owners who are not in the country.

Negotiations for way-leave generally include financial compensations, often than not, these take time.

At times landowners would request for help to construct a boundary wall and such as compensation, and on certain occasions some landowners would ask for exorbitant monetary compensation.

The majority of these projects that are presently stuck in the pipeline are those being undertaken by SLTA, and these include a significant number of new roads and road improvements.

“SLTA has around 30 projects that are being affected by way-leave. Given that we have undertaking road projects this means that there are a lot of private properties involved in the construction of one road. While some owners provide us with way-leave, we find that there are some who choose not to, which is why a project cannot be implemented,” explained Terry Volcère who manages SLTA’s project planning for inner islands.

Daniel Adeline, director general for project planning at the local government, noted that the department of local government has about 15 projects under way-leave negotiations.

The department of local government is responsible for constructing and developing community projects such as footpaths, secondary roads, small bridges, steps and drainage –all of which are small projects that can help several houses in a district.

It also undertakes projects such as construction of bin sites, multi-purpose courts and changing rooms, and rock armouring with other partners.

Mr Adeline highlighted that 99% of these projects have to request for way-leave.

“The majority of way-leave negotiations for community projects are done by the district administrator, and sometimes, the member of National Assembly for that district. These projects are demands made by the community, that will benefit some people in that community but not all people find the necessity for that project, which is where the problem stems from,” Mr Adeline noted.

As for the department of infrastructure, only four of its projects are on hold because of way-leave but this does not mean that the impact is less significant since two of these are housing projects that could have benefitted over 70 families.

These are 40 housing units at the ex-Desaubin housing project in Takamaka and 36 units at the Glacis housing project.

Principal secretary for infrastructure, Yves Choppy explained that the 40 units at ex-Desaubin have already been completed but cannot be allocated due to the outfall sewer which has yet to be connected.

Meanwhile, the Glacis housing project, which was supposed to start in 2018, has stalled because there is no suitable access to the site and negotiations are still ongoing on the matter.

If there had been no way-leave issues, ex-Desaubin would have been allocated by the first quarter of 2019 and Glacis would have been now in completion phase.

The two other projects are sewerage connection from Copolia to Corgat Estate, which is 55% complete, and a land bank project at La Gogue which started in 2017 but which cannot be completed due to lack of road access.

On his part, the director of public investment and asset management at the Ministry of Finance, Investment, Trade and Economic Planning, Jude Commettant, stated that way-leave negotiations sometimes increases the initial budget of a project and puts a pressure other projects.

Elsie Pointe