Capital city must help settlers

 THE plight of displaced settlers on urban land is unfortunate to say the least. 

People who are occupying state land and have no proper tenancy rights or a land title must know that they are living on borrowed time insofar as the state and commercial interests are concerned. 

Settlers on Paga  Hill, in Port Moresby’s downtown area, have fought to stay in the place they have called home for decades but the development of vacant and undeveloped public land in the city’s central business district was inevitable. 

National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop was adamant that despite their protests and refusal to move, the settlers would be relocated to other points in the city. 

Two development projects are planned for the land on the southern part of the hill over-looking the entrance of Fairfax Harbour. 

One, the construction of a ring road by Curtain Brothers, was already in underway hence the need for the re-settlement of the community. 

The other will be taken up by Paga Hill Development Company and residential and high rise development is expected to encompass most of the vacant land on the hill. 

Both these projects compliment the other because they will benefit from each being in place. 

Additionally, the ring road will alleviate traffic congestion that is a problem on the roads in Moresby’s town area. 

This is some of the city’s most prime real estate and with a building boom in this part of the nation’s capital experienced over the last de­cade, developers have always been on the lookout for land to develop here. 

Moves to develop the Paga Hill land started well before the recent eviction of the settlers. 

What Parkop and the municipal authority must do now is relocate the settlers to other parts of the city, which they have done. 

They are obligated to do this and one would expect developers to assist where they can, which has o been the case. 

Other areas of Port Moresby will come under scrutiny in the short to medium term as the limited land in the national capital district is taken over by commercial interests. 

Parkop has promised to improve living conditions in settlements and turn them into proper suburbs as a way addressing the problem of housing and poverty. 

Morata, in the city’s North-West electorate, is a good example of a settlement slowly turning into a suburb but more still needs to be down to have it brought to that status. 

Parkop has stated previously that settlements that are located on prime real estate will be removed and the people moved to other areas of the city. 

One of these areas is the Two-Mile Hill settlement. 

Parkop’s problems in this regard are big and will not get any easier with time. The long term solution would be to identify tracts of land within the city limits and to commit these areas exclusively to residential areas for low cost housing for the majority of the city’s inhabitants. 

Once that is exhausted expansion into Central will be the only other option unless the NCD Commission can cram over a million people into the city boundaries without a good portion of its population forced to make due in settlements. 

Unplanned and poorly serviced settlements are located all over Port Moresby. 

This growth has been the result of poor management and an apathetic approach by the state over the years. 

It is now up to the city’s government to manage and appropriate the funding to convert them to proper urban communities replete with the basic services in clean water, power, proper sewerage and other amenities that city residents expect. 

However, if these communities are found to be on land that is of commercial value and/or on land that must be used for a purpose that will benefit the city as a whole, then these communities must be moved. 

It is worth noting that squatting, the occupation of land without legal entitlement, has been rife in Port Moresby because the majority of city residents are either unemployed or do not earn enough to be properly housed. And while this was not as big an issue in previous years, it will become a contentious issue as the city grows.