When the minister of housing stated one day that the housing problem in the Kingdom was a crisis of thought, not plots, loans or laws, he became the talk of the day and was subjected to a storm of criticism by many.
In fact, I was party to that campaign because I was convinced that the whole process needs providing the main components of housing, but now, I admit that the minister was correct and that we should reform our thinking first before excavation, building and enacting laws.
Therefore, those who have housing plans should reconsider their concepts to contribute to the government’s efforts to solve this problem for good. A citizen should adapt his actual needs to be aligned with the government’s time, not material or potentials.
To be more specific, any four-member family trying to build a house for 10 with government subsidy should choose a suitable location to achieve this goal. He should, for example, become convinced to find a place outside the congested cities. It is true that everybody is doing his best to come back to Al-Mzahimia to live and work there, but this requires availability of infrastructure and legal formalities. Instead, we should consider building a model town in the open area between Riyadh and Al-Mzahimia so that the beneficiaries will be far from the city center and close to their place of birth. The same thing applies to Kharj, Qassim and Dammam.
We should learn lessons from other countries, which are facing severe housing and traffic problems because everybody wants to live in big cities where life is intolerable. In some countries, like Jordan, the population of its capital; Amman, is almost half of the total population of the country. This has created a chronic problem for a country with limited resources and fragile infrastructure and poor public services. Cairo, with a population of 10 million, is another example where the city’s population almost doubles during daytime.
In addition to our rigid thinking, the housing crisis is also due to a lack of long-term foresight in town planning.
It is high time we changed our thinking and planning so as to prevent problems.
In fact, I was party to that campaign because I was convinced that the whole process needs providing the main components of housing, but now, I admit that the minister was correct and that we should reform our thinking first before excavation, building and enacting laws.
Therefore, those who have housing plans should reconsider their concepts to contribute to the government’s efforts to solve this problem for good. A citizen should adapt his actual needs to be aligned with the government’s time, not material or potentials.
To be more specific, any four-member family trying to build a house for 10 with government subsidy should choose a suitable location to achieve this goal. He should, for example, become convinced to find a place outside the congested cities. It is true that everybody is doing his best to come back to Al-Mzahimia to live and work there, but this requires availability of infrastructure and legal formalities. Instead, we should consider building a model town in the open area between Riyadh and Al-Mzahimia so that the beneficiaries will be far from the city center and close to their place of birth. The same thing applies to Kharj, Qassim and Dammam.
We should learn lessons from other countries, which are facing severe housing and traffic problems because everybody wants to live in big cities where life is intolerable. In some countries, like Jordan, the population of its capital; Amman, is almost half of the total population of the country. This has created a chronic problem for a country with limited resources and fragile infrastructure and poor public services. Cairo, with a population of 10 million, is another example where the city’s population almost doubles during daytime.
In addition to our rigid thinking, the housing crisis is also due to a lack of long-term foresight in town planning.
It is high time we changed our thinking and planning so as to prevent problems.
