IMAGINE a new revamped Maseru city with large, inviting open spaces with lush green gardens.
Imagine a new Maseru with well paved roads with street names, where residential houses are properly numbered?
When you give directions to visitors, all you have to do is give them your residential address and with their GPS on their phones they will be able to pinpoint exactly where your house is located.
Picture the postman finally delivering letters and parcels at your doorstep.
Visualize a Maseru with properly designated places of worship, schools, playgrounds, industrial parks and business centres.
Imagine a new Maseru with dazzling spaghetti roads to deal with a burgeoning population and increased traffic.
How about recreational centres where the youth and the elderly can play games and have clubs, instead of idling on street corners?
All these might sound too good to be true but it's a dream that will soon be realised, thanks to an ambitious master-plan that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship is now currently developing.
The Maseru Master Plan will seek to inform future developmental plans for the city.
Although the plan's immediate target is to reshape Maseru for the next 30 years, its main goal is to set a solid foundation to turn Maseru into a world-class city.
The master plan seeks to systematically "cure" the haphazard nature of Maseru's settlements that have hindered the city's growth and stifled its potential.
The benefits of a well-planned city are immense, especially now when cities are jostling for investors in a crowded market.
Which city an investor chooses for a project will be determined by critical issues like congestion, zoning rules, waste management and the quality of the air.
They want to know how long it takes for employees to get from home to office.
Even issues like cycle tracks and footways might have an influence on an investor's decision.
It might even come down to issues we consider mundane like how long it takes to drive for a pint of milk, a loaf of bread or a meal with friends.
Cities, like countries, are branding themselves to attract investment and tourists.
What they are selling to investors are not only incentives but also the right infrastructure designed to adequately serve residents, businesses and visitors.
Investors also want to know what the city will look like in the next few decades so that they can plan ahead.
It is only with a clear master plan that they can have an idea of where they will get land for expansion, where to open new branches and what kind of infrastructure to build.
Kabelo Lethunya, the Director of Housing in the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship, spoke eloquently of the master plan at a workshop organised by her ministry last Thursday.
The project of developing the master plan is being supported by the Private Sector Competitiveness and Economic Diversification Project (PSCEDP), a government initiative backed by the World Bank.
Lethunya said the plan was crafted in direct response to the many challenges urbanisation is posing to Maseru.
Rural to urban migration has worsened the crisis with new settlements springing up in Maseru's peri-urban areas, she said.
"The capital city (Maseru) and other towns are experiencing rapid growth due to new arrivals from rural areas, the majority of whom settle in peri-urban areas," Lethunya said.
The rapid growth has resulted in an "uncontrolled and unplanned urban sprawl that encroaches on prime agricultural land, open spaces and natural biodiversity".
Lethunya said the Maseru Master Plan will be used to guide urban development in the city.
She said "uncontrolled settlements" were having a negative impact on infrastructure development.
The "uncontrolled settlements" were effectively pushing up the costs of setting up public infrastructure around the city.
"The inability to plan ahead of informal urban (settlements) has also created space for massive speculative land sales in most urban areas," she said.
Most urban households were now unable to afford land as the prices have soared beyond their reach.
"This has compelled such households to move even further from urban centres in search of cheaper land, thereby taking the urban sprawl even further afield."
Lethunya said the town master plan could unlock massive investment opportunities for the private sector.
She said a clear town plan will attract the right investors critical in the government's push to roll back extreme poverty and contribute to economic growth.
"With a clear master plan on how to develop the city, it will be very easy for the private sector to invest in," she said.
"This master plan will be used to guide urban development in Maseru."
Lethunya said in crafting the Maseru Master Plan the ministry will be guided by the National Vision 2020, the Land Act 2010, the Town and Country Planning Act 1980, the National Development Strategic Plan II and the National Housing Policy 2018.
On the international scene, she said the ministry will be guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.
"The New Urban Agenda (NUA) is a global framework that lays out how cities should be planned and managed in order to achieve sustainable development."
"The NUA says in order (to ensure) good planning of urban areas, there needs to be action plans similar to the Maseru Master Plan. The Maseru Master Plan will be one of the vehicles that we as Lesotho shall use to achieve the goal of the NUA."
Dr. Donna Rudinoff, an expert hired by the PSCED to assist in crafting the Master Plan, said there is a strong correlation between a town's competitiveness and its economic development.
She said competitive cities often facilitate private industries to create jobs for their residents.
Rudinoff said the proposed master plan will build on the 2010 plan taking into consideration changes in population size as well as relevant laws and new issues such as climate change.
The master plan will have three phases which are to be completed within a 30-year period.
"I think of city planning in terms of children," she said.
"I ask myself what facilities would a city need to have in order to meet the needs of our children living in it? Transport services, schools, health services and the like."
Quinn Mohlokaqala, a design and construction manager at RISE International who attended the workshop, said while a new master plan is good it is important to understand why previous plans were never implemented.
That is key to ensure the current plan does not suffer the same fate, he said.