Urbanisation project

AN editorial in The National last month, ‘Follow the law and prevent urban mess’, describes accurately what has happened in the Taurama Valley urbanisation pilot project.
Indeed the place was vacant customary land 10 years ago. The Office of Urbanisation, as part of its vision and mission, sought to bring customary land into the formal planning process.
It was aware that the cities and town were growing and that the future of urban towns and cities would be at the mercy of how we successfully harnessed the customary land on all the urban outskirts.
If more land after the State land was exhausted could not be successfully planned and brought into the ever-growing cities, we would be rapidly turning our cities into slums.
Taurama was ideal land within the city limits and there was an opportunity for a win-win situation.
Despite numerous awareness programmes and consultations, and a serious attempt to register the whole of the land under the new Voluntary Customary land Registration system, there were factions and divisions among themselves.
Family units proved stronger then the clan system because they were able to sell off land while the clan ILGs stood by helplessly.
It is continuing.
The Taurama and Faniufa pilot projects in NCD and Goroka respectively could not be continued due to a lack of funding support.
We have learnt valuable lessons that no other Government agency can claim to have learnt.
They have not experimented with any customary land for development.
The major lesson learnt was that ILGs for customary land registration in its present form would not succeed.
This is because land ownership and control is vested in families within the clan or tribal boundaries, not the divided and uncohesive clans and tribes which have been falsely thought to have the power.
Only swamp land and virgin forests land areas can be registered under common clan groups, but not land that has been utilised by family groups generation after generation.
Our call for attention to planned urbanisation is still to be given the respect and attention it deserves.
PNG must not ever believe that it will not urbanise.
Far from it.
We are heading directly that way and the planning and managing of it must happen starting now and not later.
This means creating the policies, strategies and mechanisms to manage urbanisation.
Ensure that sufficient resources are allocated and not lip service.

Max Kep
Executive Director
Office of Urbanisation