Plan city well using this year’s census

LATELY, there’s been a lot of fuss about evicting settlers and destroying settlements in and around Port Moresby due to fights and social issues. Port Moresby is a city occupied with settlements.
There’s also complaint by the working class about the National Capital District Commission dishing out free titles to settlers who are not indigenous landowners but vagrants who have no business squatting on those lands.
What we should learn from the 8-Mile eviction last year is that development is inevitable in a booming city like Port Moresby.
Port Moresby is probably the only province where a land title is shared between the local landowners and the State.
The National Capital District Commission should tread carefully before dishing out titles or issuing eviction notices because it can be a slippery slope and cause more dissatisfaction among the public.
The problem originated years ago when the city planners and the authorities back then failed to envisage the issue that’s faced today by Port Moresby residents.
Today’s settlers in settlements are fourth or fifth generation settlers.
They have no connection to their provinces.
All they know is Port Moresby.
The same goes for the working class.
They’ve been pushed to the settlements of Port Moresby because of the State’s negligence in regulating the real estate and housing industry.
The National Capital District should take the coming census seriously and do a proper social mapping and plan out the development of the city not only for the years ahead, but for the next 10 to 20 years.
This could give them a fair idea about the number of settlements in the city and how to contain its illegal encroachment into the city’s business areas.

Observer,
NCD