Integrated Development
Urban Ecology
As soon as we talk about ecology, I hear some people coming up with their ready-made solutions: “We need to plant trees,” they say. It’s the same way we ended up with six housing estates in one district. There was a need for housing, and since there was space in one area, they built a first batch of dormitory towns. Then, they planted six more lots. As a result, we have one of the largest concentrations of dormitory towns on the island.
It’s not just about planting trees. It’s important to rethink collective residences so they are no longer Dormitory Cities. Our residential areas need promenades, green screens against noise, and community spaces where people can do activities together, outdoors or indoors. Culture needs to come to them; we need to be able to educate about things that school doesn’t teach. This is what urban ecology is; it’s about enabling humans to flourish and develop in their environment. However, by indiscriminately growing NHDC apartments, we have deprived many of an entire environment.
Several neighborhoods in Mauritius have been dehumanized. And it’s not by planting trees like fools that we will restore their humanity. There is a whole rehabilitation program that must be undertaken for humans and nature.
How can agriculture be introduced into an urbanized area where land has become rare and expensive? Here’s another challenge to face. Because our young people need to be able to turn it into opportunities for tomorrow; they need to set up farming and agricultural cooperatives, and for others, find spaces for trades and essential services.
Social Inclusion
Who does what? For whom? With what? We don’t think systemically.
It’s not just about giving methadone to drug addicts, for example.
There needs to be a social inclusion plan for a real therapeutic program. Here are those who can be integrated into a green jobs program: rehabilitating vacant lots they squatted, participating in the creation of promenades and gardens, taking care of stray dogs while considering the need to create shelters, learning centers for pet owners. For this to happen, different ministries need to learn to work together rather than multiplying useless actions on their own.
