Africa

Industrialists in Africa are pushing for the creation of a giant dam on the Congo River that would generate enough energy for the half-billion people on the continent without electricity. The huge project has been called "a Marshall Plan for Africa."

The mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, has announced a plan to provide water, lighting, and sanitation to all of the city's densely-packed slum dwellers.

Transit officials have approved a plan to take over the city's transportations systems, creating an expanded and more unified web of trains and buses.

A 2014 goal of 30% farm ownership by blacks in South Africa is far from being met, as whites still control more than 80% of the nation's farmland. Many say the government's land reform laws are incapable of efficiently redistributing the land.

South Africa has been tapped to host the 2010 World Cup, and though th event is three years away, preparations are already underway -- and progressing at a strenuous pace to try to stay on schedule.

Oil money has fueled an urban development boom in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, prompting some to call it the "African Dubai". But with the continuing and deadly conflict in Darfur, many countries are hesitant to invest in Sudan.

After floods killed more than 700 in 2001, the government in Mozambique has shifted its disaster management from 'response' to 'prevention'. With recent floods swallowing villages whole, the new disaster prevention efforts have saved hundreds.

Plans for a long-imagined underwater high speed rail line connecting Europe and Africa emphasizes the comparative lack of rail development in the United States.

Food shortages and economic decline have forced Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to rescind his 2005 land reform decision to seize all farmland from white farmers. Land has already been returned to 19 white farmers, while more await lease approval.

Bushmen have won a long court case against the Botswanan government for illegally removing them from their ancestral lands. The ruling is expected to set a standard for other indigenous people in the protection of their ancestral lands.

Large-scale infrastructure projects in South Africa are rapidly increasing land costs and the costs of building. Some fear these projects may create a slow-down in private development.

Inner-city regeneration in the central business district of Johannesburg, South Africa, have turned the area around from being an abandoned and dangerous neighborhood into one flourishing with active businesses and residents.

When it comes to real estate, the mantra has always been "location, location, location". But now, as congestion and sprawling development increase rapidly, that mantra is being modified to include "accessibility".

The planning process in Cape Town, South Africa, is struggling with major delays as changes in the decision-making structure have left planning officials with little or no authority to approve plans.

As more and more African's move to cities, experts fear the growth of huge slum-filled mega cities, unable to meet the demand for basic services.

For decades corrupt and unscrupulous waste disposal practices have targeted African countries for toxic dumping. Now the enormous surge in the production of e-waste is magnifying this problem.

This editorial asks why farmers in centuries passed could plan ahead for Botswana's rainy season, but rains cause chaos for the country as administrators can't seem to plan an effective infrastructure system to handle the downpour.

A draft spatial development framework in Cape Town has created a rift between developers and city planners over how much and what type of development should be allowed to push out to the city's urban fringe.

Kenya's land surveyors, town and physical planners, engineers, and architects will target Nairobi's blighted areas and try to prevent future unplanned developments.

Although indistinguishable from their usual power supply, residential consumers will be asked to pay more the cleaner-produced fuel.