Civilisation as we know it probably started with urbanisation in the Euphrates-Tigris valley (now modern Iraq). Cities concentrate people, buildings, know-how, wealth, economic opportunities and trade, music and culture, and teach men community living.

• Yet many cities are choking, they harbour extreme poverty and environmental degradation, are violent and unsafe as well as being unhealthy places to live in and bring up a family.

• Most towns and cities in most countries of the world grew out of villages or settlements as was the case for Port-Louis and Curepipe, for London and Paris.

There are two exceptions to this gradual growth of cities:

New capitals such as Canberra, Abuja, Islamabad and above all Brazilia.

New towns created out of countryside to provide more living space.

Those new towns were all planned and designed to meet specific needs. They were built in strategic regions, not anywhere (for example, where ILLOVO land happens to be available). They were the result of modern planning, with multiple services at the door-step, human scale development, green and well kept environments, beautiful and aesthetic architecture, attractive and peaceful self-contained living. There must be good distribution of residential areas, services, industry and recreation, which must be both well-sorted out spatially and interlocked.

• Having been involved in the original ?Open University? venture, the new town I know best is Milton Keynes where the Open University of UK (the first of its kind in the world) is situated. Needless to say, that the location of one great institution (in that case Open University) in a new town, gives it a tremendous boost and a magnet to attract new residents and businesses. The same is true with Marne La Vallée near Paris, which has ?Disneyland?. Another successful new town is Istres, which houses ?Aerospatiale?. The new towns around London were mainly residential (e.g. Stevenage, Hemel Hampstead and Welwyn Garden City). The new towns of Lancashire however had as main purpose the relocation of industries away from Manchester and Liverpool (e.g. Runcorn and Warrington).

Two extraordinary new towns, which I visited recently, are worth mentioning here: Sandton and Port Grimaud. Sandton near Jo?burg in South Africa was built to serve two main purposes, shopping and security. Port Grimaud near St Tropez on the Côte d?Azur in France, is a small Venice, the town built on canals of sea water and bridges and which has a wonderful atmosphere. Il y fait bon vivre which is the best way to state that the project is a success.

- The case of Mauritius

I state what follows categorically: the selling of Illovo land for residential and other purposes, while laudable in itself, is wrong in that there is no planned development of new towns, only large morcellement. It?s not too late to act.

• What to do? We need planners, architects, landscaping specialists, we need a vision for each new town, we need imaginative names and above all the political will (which surely is there) to properly plan the Mauritius of tomorrow.

The new town concept is totally different from a morcellement (?parcellisation?) as we know and practise it in Mauritius.

• A new town is likely to have these features, all harmoniously integrated:-

• a new name (e.g. Ebène Cyber City; Ville Nouvelle de La Gaulette or Union Vale New Town)

• residential clusters from low-cost housing to upper middle level clusters;

all services, including shopping malls, eating places, markets, libraries, transport, schools, police, medical facilities, etc;

• road and city signs; road furniture;

• places of worship, of leisure and sporting facilities;

• one or more major industry or institution, often on public land;

• a town centre or as in most old east European cities a Town Square. There can be several town centres for example, one for culture, one for transport (gare routière), and one for shopping and eating;

• the premises for local government (town hall, council, public participation systems, etc);

• green spaces, gardens, trees.

In conclusion. Mauritius is at present developing well-defined policies and strategies for land utilization. Land and probably fresh water are two genuinely scarce resources in small island states like ours. The thousands of hectares of Illovo and other agricultural lands must therefore be planned as new towns, an old and well tried concept with a new meaning. The mere morcellement of land, Mauritian style, is inadequate and dépassé.

by Michaël ATCHIA