PLANNING FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE TOWN

Background

My home country, the Seychelles, is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa. It is home to numerous beaches, coral reefs and nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as giant Aldabra tortoises. Mahé, a hub for visiting the other islands, is home to capital Victoria. It also has the mountain rainforests of Morne Seychellois National Park and beaches.

Constraints

Similarly to other small island developing states, my home country Seychelles has not been spared by climatic events and challenges that negatively affect our livelihood.

In 2023, we witnessed increasingly higher tides and changing weather patterns, resulting in increased frequency of extreme rainfall, coastal flooding and other natural hazards that have contributed to reduced productivity in agriculture.

The plan

Being at the heart of planning for our country, we look towards better management of our resources and innovation in our planning to surmount such challenges. The aim is to achieve this through our “Victoria masterplan”, a 25-year plan adopted in 2015 to guide our urban planning and development.

The aspiration for Victoria is to create a vibrant Creole Capital and Indian Ocean hub. A city which builds on its unique attributes and cultural heritage to realise opportunities for future growth and prosperity. A city which is an attractive place to live, work, visit and invest and can embrace the challenges of the 21st century.

The Victoria Masterplan provides the response to this aspiration, sets out how it can be achieved and provides guidance on the future development and growth of Victoria.

The Masterplan identifies the following areas of focus:

A network of green spaces: a green city with a network of new and enhanced green spaces and public squares which can be a focus for relaxation, play, festivals and outdoor performances.

A revitalised public realm: good-quality public realm and a network of attractive pedestrian routes enable people to move safely through the city.

A well-connected transport network: improvements to the transport network provide better connections and interchanges for users, so that public transport is used by choice.

Masterplan strategies

The Masterplan is underpinned by six key strategies.

These strategies will be delivered through a series of key projects, a summary of which is provided below:

• Strategy 1: Delivering Growth

• Strategy 2: Creating a Liveable Place

• Strategy 3: Embracing Creole Heritage and Identity

• Strategy 4: Revitalising the Public Realm

• Strategy 5: Activating the Waterfront

• Strategy 6: Developing a Coherent Movement Network

By expanding on the strategies above, the aim is to achieve the following:

1. Sustainable management of land for sustainable growth of the town.

2. Better and more sustainable transport network within and to and from the town (Cable car, pedestrianisation, bicycles and jogging lanes, vehicle roads being placed on the outskirts of town, regional multistory parking bays). And a revitalised and improved public realm.)

3. Reflecting our culture and heritage (old town characteristics) in our town growth and design guidelines.

4. Making use of the Victoria Waterfront for a sustainable setting and to bolster economic growth.

5. Making Victoria a “green” town through improvement of the public realm, consolidating green spaces and parks and making them more cohesive and multifunctional to be utilised more widely. (Includes a proposal for a vegetable and fruit market within the Roche Caiman green space.)

6. Making better uses of our waterways and rivers that cross through the town, for aesthetic, relaxation and economic benefits.

7. Becoming a more resilient town through adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and severe weather events. Becoming resilient to floods and landslides. These to be achieved through better planned development.

8. Improving coastal resilience.

9. Making sustainable uses of reclaimed land that forms part of Victoria (eg Ile Aurore)

Financial Requirements

It goes without saying that the above requires a considerable amount of finance for the sustainable implementation of our dream town. The Seychelles government has initiated the implementation of the plan in phases, based on availability of finance.

This year, the first phase of development of the Victoria waterfront will kick off after several months of planning.

The planning and work on a sustainable transport system is also under way.

The ideal would be to have sufficient funds to implement all the strategies in one go. Hence, the country continuously looks towards relevant foreign organisations for funding, where possible, to help with implementation and, at the same time, address several issues that we face. Nonetheless, we will persist with the implementation of the Victoria Masterplan.