Challenges of Urban Land Administration and Its Implication on Urban Development of Mettu Town, Ilu Abbabora Zone, Oromia National Regional States, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

Land is one of the most valuable natural resources which is indispensable for social, cultural, as well as for the survival and prosperity of humankind, and it is the platform on which human activities take place. The issue of land is the most sensitive of human beings everywhere in the world and significant aspect in economic, political and social affairs. The objective of this study was to assess Challenges Of Urban Land Administration And Its Implication On Urban Development of Mettu Town, Southwest of Ethiopia. Descriptive survey design with Mixed research approach was used in this study. Questionnaire, interviews and observation were used to collect data from the different respondents of the Woreda. Three hundred sixty seven household were used as study unit from total of 8960 households in Mettu town. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were employed in the study. Sample household from each kebele were determined proportionally based on the size of each kebeles’ household. The findings of the study shows that around thirty percent of study participants were civil servants andtwenty three percent were merchants. Seventy eight percent’s of were accessing the land through cooperative method and 12.6% accessed the land through lease system and the other 4.6% ,4.0% were access through assignment and illegally respectively. From those who had access to land 69.5% have legal documents and the other 30.5% have not legal documents or they get the property right illegally by corruption. About 47.7% respondents, response there is a weak land delivery system, 20.1% medium land delivery system, the reaming 17.2%, 12.1% and 2.9 % responses strong, very weak and very strong respectively. The survey indicated that frequency of land provisions to meet land demand in the town were bad that accounts 50% of the respondents say no provision of land for long time by the municipal and it lead the residents for illegal invasion of land in suburb areas of the town and it also problems for administration activities of the town, 31%,9.8%,5.7% and 3.4% respond that the frequency is very bad, good, neutral, and very good respectively . Land is a basic and a scarce natural resource; lack of effective land use planning and implementation, inadequate financial resources and human resources as well as material resources are the major constraints for an efficient and proper utilization of this resource.