By the 3rd Month in Thailand ....

900 villagers from tsunami-hit areas come together with high-level government officials to talk about the land issue

HOW TO MAKE SPACE FOR THE PEOPLE'S VOICE

Survivors at the BNC Camp

 
On Sunday and Monday, February 27 - 28, 2005, a high-profile seminar was organized to look at the issue of land and tenure rights in rehabilitating the tsunami-hit villages along Thailand's Andaman coast.   Besides 900 people from tsunami-hit communities and their support networks and NGOs, the seminar involved the governors of all six affected provinces, the Deputy Prime Minister and officials from all the ministries and central government departments involved in tsunami rehabilitation.   The seminar was held in the grounds of the municipal school, in Takua Paa Sub District, Phang Nga Province (very close to the Bang Muang tsunami refugee camp).  

On the first day, the seminar provided an opportunity for people from tsunami-affected communities in all six provinces to sit together and share ideas and discuss.   It was a very big group of about 900 community people from villages all six affected provinces.   In the afternoon, they continued their discussions, with the government officers from their provinces.   These discussions on the first day were not too sharp, but the sharing was vibrant, and for many communities, this was their first chance to hear what others are doing.   Besides discussions and experience-sharing about problems of land tenure in coastal communities affected by the tsunami, the seminar was also the occasion for inauguration of projects which demonstrate practical, realistic and replicable solutions to problems of eviction and livelihood in poor fishing communities affected by the killer waves :

•  Community rebuilding projects   The inauguration of several community rebuilding projects, in which extremely difficult land conflicts have been resolved in different ways, and people are now rebuilding their houses.

•  Community-repaired boats   The inauguration of five fishing boats which have been repaired by one of the 20 community-based boat repair workshops that have been established along the tsunami-affected coast.    

20 affected villages facing serious land-conflict problems

Another interesting aspect of this big seminar was that CODI persuaded all the various government agencies, departments and ministries involved in the tsunami rehabilitation process to attend the seminar.   But instead of just sitting in the crowd, these agencies were invited to set up public booths that had been set up around the meeting venue.   This was a strategy for bringing these government departments to the people, instead of the other way around.   This way, if people feel there have been injustices, or if they have complaints about various aspects of the government's post-tsunami relief efforts, they can ask directly the representatives of the various departments and agencies.   And there are LOTS of complaints!   The jobs department, the debt-relief department, the compensation for death department, the compensation for lost boats department, etc.     

The Deputy Prime Minister, Chavalit Yongchaiyuth, who attended this seminar (and who has been a very strong ally for affected fishing communities at the highest level of government) is the chairman of the National Committee on Land.   A subcommittee to look specifically at communities affected by the tsunami has been set up under this national committee.   After gathering information and studying the very complicated land ownership and tenure situations in the 418 coastal communities affected by the tsunami, the subcommittee came up with a list of 20 of the most difficult cases where communities are facing serious land ownership conflicts after the tsunami.   After intense behind-the-scenes negotiating (involving a variety of actors at community, district, provincial and national level), six of these 20 cases have been resolved.   During the seminar, Mr. Chavalit will announce these six cases, which will be presented as possible models for how other community land conflicts might be resolved.

The tenure situation and land status in many of these coastal communities is very complicated.  
Much of the land now occupied by villages along the Andaman coast is public land, but it is divided up into bits a pieces which are controlled by a host of government departments and ministries, all with their own rules and procedures, and their own set of vested interests.   There are lands under the Mines Department, land under the Coastal Department, preserved lands under the Ministry of Environment, general government land under the control of the Ministry of Interior or the Treasury Department, land under the Fisheries Department, degraded forest lands set aside for the Land Reform Program.   The national government's Land Department is the one unit which touches all these lands, since it has the job of issuing papers of concession, or rent or user rights to these lands, depending on their use.          

In the first half of the 20th century, a lot of these lands were given on concession to private sector tin mining companies (on Nor Sor 3 land use contracts) , even though many had already been occupied by villages and fishing communities for centuries.   When the tin mines were abandoned in the 1950s and the mining concessions expired, many of the concession contracts were passed on or sold to a new generation of entrepreneurs and speculators, even while they should have reverted to public control.   While the real status of many of these coastal lands remains extremely murky, a lot of landlords have suddenly appeared after the tsunami, waving title deeds to land where villages had stood for decades - or even centuries.          

"Thinking practical instead of historical"  

The validity of these title deeds may be questionable, but the reality is that it could take years and years to dig down under all the layers of shady deals and overlapping claims to find out who really does own the land - or has the right to use it - and would almost certainly involve going to court.   It would go on and on.   And during the process, the villager's lives would be in suspension, while the speculators would be unable to make any money, so everyone would lose.   The subcommittee on land proposed finding compromise solutions which allow the villagers to get some suitable secure land (in the same place, or very close by) for rebuilding their settlements and the landlords to carry on with their investments in tourism or fisheries or whatever.   The strategy of land-sharing has proven to be just such a practical, compromise solution in many urban land-conflict situations in Thailand, but this was the first chance to try land sharing in a rural setting.    

The most interesting part of the seminar was on the second day (Monday) when the Deputy Prime Minister came with a big entourage of government officials from all sorts of ministries and departments.   His first stop was Ban Tung Wah village.   

 

Idea of a new, flexible tsunami fund for affected communities

Before the seminar, CODI had proposed to the government the idea of setting up a special fund of about 200 million Baht (US$ 5 million) to assist the tsunami-affected communities.   The Deputy P.M. has been very supportive of the fund idea, and mentioned it during the meeting, but the negotiations are still going on and details still being worked out.   The idea of the fund is that it would be extremely flexible, offering loans or grants as needed to support any kind of project people feel is needed.   People could propose any kind of project, such as:   boat building and repair, job creation, school scholarships, orphan benefits, community welfare for elderly or sick or disabled, house repair, anything the people need.   But the key point of the fund is that all proposals must come from a group or a community, not from individuals.   Where so much of the tsunami relief assistance is short-term, this fund would be on-going and long-term.   The fund would also be a powerful mechanism for   legitimizing and strengthening the network of tsunami-affected communities, which is now being established and strengthened.  

 

 

Bringing the government down to the people

Another interesting aspect of this big seminar was that CODI persuaded all the various government agencies, departments and ministries involved in the tsunami rehabilitation process to attend the seminar.   But instead of just sitting in the crowd, these agencies were invited to set up public booths that had been set up around the meeting venue.   This was a strategy for bringing these government departments to the people, instead of the other way around.   This way, if people feel there have been injustices, or if they have complaints about various aspects of the government's post-tsunami relief efforts, they can ask directly the representatives of the various departments and agencies.   And there are LOTS of complaints!   The jobs department, the debt-relief department, the compensation for death department, the compensation for lost boats department, etc.     

 

A Thai academic ponders ...

" We can say that the "contractor business" is dominating our society including many Ministers. So we have to be cautious of not getting the contractor - politician nexus to be too mean. - about the way different kinds of people, affected by the tsunami, should live.   - I think I can say something like that."

 

MARCH 2     THAILAND
This Land is Our Land
Powerful writing about one woman who epitomises the struggle of tsunami survivors fighting to reclaim their land
by Sanitsuda Ekachai from the Bangkok Post

Deputy Prime Minister's first stop
Thailand's first post-tsunami, shoreline land-sharing scheme at Ban Tung Wah village

Background of Ban Tung Wah   Before the tsunami completely wiped away the village, the Mokan ( indigenous "sea gypsies") fishing village at Ban Tung Wah in Phang Nga Province occupied 26 Rai of coastal land in Takua Paa District.    After the tsunami, the local administrative authority claimed that the people had been squatters on public land and tried to prevent the people from returning, with the claim that the land was needed to build a public hospital (using money donated by the German Embassy in Bangkok).   Though these fisher folk had no title deeds or papers, they had lived in this place for decades and considered the land to be their own.  

A couple of weeks after the tsunami, this intrepid community decided to "invade" their own land and began building houses immediately.   With the whole community camping out on the old site, it became extremely difficult for the local authority to chase them away - especially given the intense media attention that was being focused on the tsunami rehabilitation process, and the plight of such poor fishing communities up and down the Andaman coast.   Under the land-sharing agreement that was eventually hammered out, 16 Rai of the land will be given to the community cooperative on a long-term collective land lease, while the remaining 10 rai will be returned to the local authority to build its hospital.               

It had been planned to invite the Deputy PM to inaugurate the first ten houses which the people had built, using their own labor and extremely modest cash from donors (about 100,000 Baht per house).   The houses were constructed by fisher folk themselves very simply of bamboo, timber, rough planks and tin sheets, with full verandahs and airy rooms and all kinds of open space underneath for raising chickens and pigs and slinging hammocks during the hot part of the afternoon!   The Deputy P.M. visited the community, saw the houses the people had built, saw the community layout plan they had drawn up with a young architect, and sat talking with the people, hearing their stories - bringing a legitimacy to the whole process.   

The land sharing agreement   The original village occupied an area of 26 rai (4.16 hectares) of seaside land.   Under the final land sharing agreement that has been agreed upon by all parties, the people will get 16 rai (2.56 hectares, or 62% of the land) of the land to rebuild their village, and the Phang Nga Province will get 10 rai (1.6 hectares, or 38% of the land).   The negotiation involved the National Land Department, the local administrative authority, the provincial Governor - the agreement had to involve all these agencies.

And the Deputy P.M.'s visit to the community in the morning ended up being a very friendly, human occasion.   He sat with the community for quite a while, and listened to their stories.   They talked and talked and told him everything!   And there were also many, many Mokan (indigenous fisher folk, "sea gypsies") from other communities who had also come to join the visit and were sitting around on the ground - hundreds of them.   Mr. Chavalit climbed up the stairs and walked through one of the houses, and talked for a while with the Mokan family that was staying there.

Everybody who came liked the spacious houses these Mokan fisher folk has built for themselves , elevated on pillars, in the traditional style.   "Our new homes are better.   They give natural cooling," said 37-year-old Arkhom Saman, a Mokan of Ban Tung Wah.   And indeed, some residents of nearby Ban Nam Khem are very unhappy with the 4 x 9 meter concrete row houses they say have been foisted on them by government departments.   These airy, wooden houses in Ban Tung Wah were built by the people themselves for exactly the same cost as the government's concrete houses.   But these houses have a main area of about 7 x 7 meters, plus another 3 x 3 meter bay for the kitchen, and a very spacious 3 x 3 meter veranda, plus the area under the house - adding up to a total of 134 square meters of useable space!   Who wouldn't prefer this?

The provincial governor was also worried that the people here in Ban Tung Wah would get more land than in other areas, but in fact the plots in the redevelopment area (after the land sharing agreement) are about the same as in the government resettlement colonies, with 100 - 120 square meter plots.   

Community layout plans and Mokan Cultural Center at Tung Wah   Working closely and quickly with a young architect, the people developed a detailed land-sharing plan.   The plan was ready to present to the Deputy Prime Minister, in the form of a series of drawings and a lovely model.   The people's plans are much more ambitious than only rebuilding their houses, however.   Their plans call for making the new village at Ban Tung Wah into a kind of regional center for Mokan culture, with a cultural center, a market and other facilities.   It was no problem fitting all these things into the 16 rai of land.   (The community architects helping out in Ban Tung Wah are used to squeezing as much as possible into extremely crowded urban sites - to them, this open, breezy seaside settlement was the project of their dreams!)

 

Fortunately, in Thailand - a very large and experienced network of grassroots savings groups and supporters was already in place throughout the country. This support network was mobilised quickly and is actively involved at all levels.

The first week focused on getting people together and gathering damage reports from the southern networks.

The second week focused on getting the victims themselves to run the relief centers and plan their futures

Jan 19 -20 the Thai camps invited people from other countries affected to share their experiences and plan strategies together - first drafts of reports from the meeting are here

By February, young architects from Bangkok were helping the people in designing new housing and communities. Alliances between the people affected and professional town planners, architects and specialist were being made. Forums were planned to create space for the people and government to interact.

 

Week 3
The situation - end of January

The second week

The first week

 

 

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Second stop 
Boat inaugurations at Ban Nam Khem village

Ban Nam Khem is a seaside settlement of mostly ex-laborers who came from all over Thailand to work in the tin mine that used to be here, on state-owned land.   When the mining concession ended, they established their own community, which about 5,500 village households have called home for over 40 years.   Of the 418 seaside villages damaged by the Dec. 26 tsunami, Baan Nam Khem received the biggest battering, where over 2,000 people were killed or lost, most houses were destroyed and 400 boats were lost or damaged.  

This large coastal community has a lot of complications about land ownership issue - to put it mildly.   It wasn't part of the seminar plan that these issues would be touched directly on this visit.   But the Deputy Prime Minister did go to inaugurate the first five boats which have been repaired by the people's own workshop.   The boat repair workshop at Ban Nam Khem is one of ten such workshops tsunami-hit communities have set up themselves, rather than wait for assistance from the government.   This was something lively.  

But the minute Mr. Chavalit set foot in the community, three or four leaders welcomed him and immediately began complaining about the land issue.   And he listened to them, and gave instructions to various members of his entourage to investigate this, and see about that.   And he also saw the rehabilitation houses that had been built by the army, which just about everyone is grumbling about.   They're not too bad, really, but they're all the same - hundreds and hundreds of units on that site, all in rows very close to the sea.   There are two types, depending on the plot size :   very small 2-room row-houses and detached 2-room houses, depending on the plot size.    

 

2005:

Diary of Baan Nam Khem
Part 1 HERE

A boat crashes a house
in Baan Nam Khem

 

Afternoon discussion session with the Deputy Prime Minister

In the afternoon, there was a seminar, where the Deputy Prime Minister spoke with what just about everyone agreed was a radical, people-focused way!   "If the houses built by the government do not suit your needs, you can break it down and build your own!   This is very correct, the way people are going back to their former land and building their own houses in the same place!"   (He's retiring in two days!).   Does it make any difference having a high-level politician say these kinds of things, when he's about to retire from politics?   In some ways it doesn't matter, one way or another.   But it was very important for the 900 people who came to this meeting hear him say these things.   As one villager put it, most of the people in government will listen to the Prime Minister but not to the people.  

Other land conflict communities under construction

Posted Feb 15 - Thailand

During last week, the issue of land after the tsunami continues to be prominent, and has been the subject of hot discussion several forums.   In Thailand, groups that are working in the rehabilitation process on the ground have been able to get quite good information about government plans, housing projects and about the relief and rehabilitation resources that are available.   So people know what's what.   There has also been a fairly wide participation of civic groups, community networks, NGOs, academics, professionals and aid organizations in both the discussion and the implementation of rehabilitation work.   So wherever the forums have been organized by various ministries, the issues of communities has been able to brought up to the floors.   However, the conflicts on land and how the affected poor can say what they want still have so much work to do.   Here are a few developments and some news about what's been happening:

1.   Good information and more public discussion on the issue of land helps slow down the eviction of traditional fishing villages in tsunami-affected areas

The voices of the fisher folk who want to go back to their land is becoming very strong.   The Thai and English-language newspapers are filled with stories about fishing communities fighting to be able to go back to the land they have occupied before the tsunami, and rebuild their communities.   The issue has also come out in several meetings organized by different ministries in the aftermath of the tsunami.   So the issue of land for these fishing communities is much more open.   So in general, it is also not so easy for government organizations or private sector interests to evict, relocate or deny these traditional communities their rights to the land they have occupied for so long (but may not have formal title to).

Also, there is quite a lot of lobbying going on behind the scenes on their behalf.   In the past week or two, several people's groups and prominent figures and have made contact with various government advisors and officials.   This creates avenues for communication on this issue, provides more information to all the groups and organizations involved in the tsunami rehabilitation land issue, and also more opportunities to represent the needs of these fishing communities.   In some ways, all this open discussion and all this flow of information has helped to slow down the eviction of these communities considerably.  

2.   The tsunami has opened up all the conflicting interests the various groups that have been affected by the disaster

It's similar to what's going on in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.   It's like the waves tore away the thin surface which covered over all these complicated and conflicting forces, and they are all now exposed and very raw:   the aspirations of traditional fishing communities, the ambitions of private sector tourism, shrimp farming and real estate operators, the local politicians who benefits commercial development of the coastal belt, the environmental activists pushing for stronger coastal environmental controls, etc.   It's a big mess, and now you can see it so clearly!

In Thailand, the conflicts in how this coastal land is used have been around a long time.   But the tourism boom of the past 10 - 20 years has really raised the stakes.   The big money that has been trying to develop the prime coastal areas has increased pressures to evict poor fishing villages from the land they occupy.   Because both local and national politicians are partners in - or beneficiaries of - various schemes to commercialize Thailand's Andaman coastline, the government's role in managing these fragile coastal environments has been deeply compromised by conflicts of interest.   To these groups of businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was the answer to their prayers, since it literally wiped these coastal areas clean of the communities which had previously stood in the way of their plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and shrimp farms.   To them, all these coastal areas are now open land!        

The only issue they have to deal with now is how to stop people from coming back to their old villages, and how to get the higher-up politicians and various authorities involved to agree with them.  

So this is what so many communities are facing.   The communities and support organizations working with them are now looking for ways to deal with this.   Some government organizations are clearly siding with the vested commercial interest groups, while others are confused about whose rights to respect:   the "traditional" land rights of these indigenous fishing communities, or the legalistic rights.   The catch is that the big people have land title and the fisher folk don't.   So the question is how to deal with these overlapping rights.  

A few examples of how the land issue is playing itself out

The fishing village at Tung Wah 
In one area in Phang Nga Province, a board was put up on some coastal land announcing the construction of a new hospital, which will be built with a grant from the German Embassy in Bangkok.   There was no mention on the board that the site is actually on land which had been occupied for hundreds of years by an indigenous mokan fishing village, before the tsunami destroyed it.   The people are now living in a temporary camp nearby.   All of these families have wish to rebuild their houses, revive their community and take up their fishing again, on the same land at Tung Wah.   But they were shocked to find this hospital project suddenly appearing on their land, without any consultation or warning.   Fishing communities such as this one at Tung Wah have lost everything in the tsunami:   their family members, their houses, their boats, their belongings and their way of life.   The only hope remaining lies in the land they have traditionally occupied.   Only there can they rebuild their lives and community and start fishing again.

Communities which have decided to "invade" their own land : In the past two weeks, there have been four or five cases in Phang Nga Province (in Baan Taptawan, Baan Thai Muang, Baan Tung Wah and others) where community people have decided not to wait for permission from anybody but to go back to the land they used to occupy and just start reconstructing their houses - even if they may be only make-shift bamboo shelters.   These are mostly indigenous "mokan" fishing villages.   Their feeling was that if they could start reconstructing their houses before the national elections ( which happened on 6 February ), it would be a way of getting a head start on the land negotiations that would have to follow.   This tactic has led to some tension.   In some cases, armed soldiers have been sent in by the government to intimidate the people, and there have been confrontations.   But so far, none of these communities have been evicted, and this "people's strategy" for negotiating may pay off in the end.

Two fishing villages with insecure tenure have already been able to negotiate for secure land and are now constructing their houses  

•  Baan Taa Chatchai :   In Phuket Province, the Baan Taa Chatchai community used to occupy a strip of Treasury Department-owned land along the coast before the tsunami destroyed most of the houses and fishing boats ( but nobody died here! ).   For years, there had been attempts to evict these 57 families to make the area into a park, but they held on.   A week after the tsunami, two young architects from Bangkok worked with the people to quickly map their old settlement and to draft plans for reconstruction.   In the negotiations between the people, the local authority and the Treasury Department, however, the people decided to take up the treasury department's offer of free resettlement plots (fully serviced, and on a 30-year renewable lease) on land that is just a few hundred meters away.   The people can now form a cooperative society and take advantage of the Baan Mankong Community Upgrading program for housing loans.   The Deputy Prime Minster attended the inauguration of this project on January 20.

Baan Pak Triem (in the northern part of Phang Nga Province) :   In this small community of 30 households, the people negotiated to purchase one acre of land near their former settlement.   They were able to haggle the land price down to only 200,000 Baht (US$ 5,000), or about US$ 170 per household.   This status of this new land, however, is still complicated:   it is public land and has no title, but the land comes with a kind of "user rights" status, which will make it easier for the people to negotiate to stay.   But it is at least more secure than the invasions.   There are so many levels of land status, and so many degrees of formality and security!   It's almost never clear!               

 

 

 

Bann Nam Kem Village

2005: Diary of Baan Nam Khem
Part 1 HERE

 

Searching ....
in Baan Nam Khem

 

 

3.   Getting local people involved in drafting the post-tsunami coastal master plan

The government has just set up a team of professionals from several of Thailand's prominent planning institutions and given it the task of preparing a master plan for the coastal areas of the six tsunami-affected provinces.   This master plan will then provide a physical guide and legal framework for the development of these areas:   how the environment will be dealt with, how the communities and the overall areas will be planned and rehabilitated.   Over the past week, CODI has been coordinating with this team and trying to bring a more participatory style to the process of drafting this master plan.  

What did CODI propose?   Thailand, like so many Asian countries, is full of master development plans which never get implemented - nobody follows them, nobody pays them any attention.   If this coastal master plan is going to be something real, something which relates to all the sectors, CODI argued that the plan should not be drafted by a bunch of cloistered planning professionals, but should be done on the ground, and in a highly participatory manner.   The idea would be to get all the local people and local interest groups into a participatory planning process, and then putting their suggestions into a form which as many of those people as possible can agree to.   In this way, the coastal master plan will actually become a jigsaw puzzle put together of all these smaller, area-specific and intensely participatory master plans, which have been developed locally, with the people.  

CODI's experiences in city-wide community upgrading has shown that the best planning is the planning in which the people who actually live in that place - all the local actors and interest groups - can sit together and talk about whatever they want and decide together on what they would like to do.

Of course these local actors (communities, civic groups, local businessmen, local agencies and NGOs) will all have their own interests to push for, and conflicts will inevitably come up.   But most of these can be resolved through a good, open planning process.   CODI has offered to assist in the process of getting communities and various local groups to be involved in developing this master plan.

For the professor who heads the team - a planner from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok - this is not the conventional style of planning, but he agreed to give it a try.   "But if we use this process and get all these local master plans drawn up," he asked, "how can we possibly implement them?"  

The answer is simple:    If we get all the people to agree to a plan, we already have the political power to implement that plan.   So there will be a "pushing force" from the people themselves and the local authorities, because it is their own plan, not some thing drawn up in Bangkok and imposed by the central government.   If the local groups agree to the plan, then it's easy and the implementation will happen almost by itself.   No need to bother too much whether the plan is implemented or not, because now the plan belongs to that local area - it's their problem !   It's something like a university, where people have all gone together through a process of learning about their own area, sharing impressions and negotiating with their neighbors for what they want their place to be.

First test for the participatory coastal planning process:  
Koh Lanta Island.  
On February 7, this master planning team will go to one of the big islands that was affected by the tsunami - Koh Lanta Island, in Krabi Province.   On that island, CODI and several local NGOs have been able to get all the local groups to agree that one of the significant aspects of the island's plan will be to allow the traditional fishing communities to stay where they are, or shift only very slightly to nearby land.   This master planning team will then sit down in a large meeting with the District Chief, the communities, the local interest groups and the support groups to see how this planning can progress.   Both CODI and the Thai Community Foundation will be involved in facilitating the community's involvement in the process.              

 

The camp site for
Baan Nam Khem villagers

Survivors at the BNC Camp

Lek from CODI explains the camp
to a local politician.

4.   Networking is growing between affected communities, within provinces and between ethnic groups

When the deputy Prime Minster visited the ruined Baan Nam Khem village (in Phang Nga Province) on 20 January, he sat with the people, on the ground, in a very big meeting of affected communities.   He told the people, now we are waiting for your plans - your plans for how you will revive your lives, your work, etc.   Whatever you feel you need for your lives, why don't we make a plan and propose it to the government?   He mentioned that a few times in the meeting.   And both the communities and the support organizations took this as an important gesture.

A few days later, a big full-day meeting was organized in Phang Nga in which about 20 communities - from 20 different tsunami-affected areas in six provinces - came together.   They discussed in that meeting all kinds of issues they felt were important - issues of land, fishing boats, livelihood, housing, children, etc.   They talked about what they need to do to revive their lives.   And they came up with an overall plan.   The plan includes general points on land rehabilitation, housing, revival of economic activities, how to repair their boats, how to deal with children, etc.

This was the first chance a lot of these tsunami-ravaged community people had a chance to compare notes and share stories and ideas with people from other areas of the Andaman coast.   It was a very powerful network-building meeting, and it was agreed in the meeting that we should find a way to strengthen these links between communities that are affected, and that are going through the same struggle to rebuild their lives after the tsunami.   This may mean that from time to time, gatherings can be organized to bring all the groups together and to discuss about certain issues.   Issues such as children:   what are we going to do with all the children who have lost parents in the tsunami?   This is one way to begin building a network around these key issues of importance.   This is one of the old techniques CODI has used for years to bring communities together.     

Young Thai soldiers unload
trucks of aid packages

Photos by Maurice Leonhardt
ACHR Jan 2 2005

A photo diary of the visit south -
Part 1 HERE

WEEK 3

In the third week, a lot of headaches are starting to come 
Since the second week, the government has been very concerned about the rehabilitation of people.  

Government announces free housing policy - but NOT in the former areas  
And because they have to deliver, and want to solve the problem very quickly, in the third week, the government announced a policy of providing free housing to tsunami-affected households.   They have divided the work of providing housing between six government departments:   the army, the private sector, etc.   And they will select available land to construct 2,400 housing units, which are going to be given free to affected families - a 100% government subsidy.  

Land tenure problems  
Of the 43 badly affected communities, about 32 have serious land problems.   Most of these are fishing communities which have been settled there for decades - many even for centuries - but the land title has not been clear.   So some of these communities are considered squatters, even though they have stayed for so long on that land.   This is the same problem we see with coastal fishing communities in all the countries affected by the tsunami.   So the government felt that people should go inland, where they can find some plots of public land to give these fisher folk, on a 30-year lease, with a free house.   It may be a good intention by the government, but the problem is that people can't survive away from the sea - they are fishermen!  

From our survey, we found that about 70% of people want to go back to their coastal communities.   They don't want to move to other inland sites, even if they get a lease and a free house.

So this is the real issue of rehabilitation, because most of the people in these affected communities will face land problems.   And even if they have a clear title for the land they have occupied, the government will then come with a whole new set of coastal zone planning regulations that say, "Now we will correct the wrongs of the past" Their way of "correcting the wrongs of the past" is by imposing planning controls, which will mean (like in Sri Lanka) that people will not be able to construct this or that.  

So most of the affected communities along the coast will face serious problems in the rehabilitation, as a result of these new planning controls.

Little room for people's participation in post-tsunami planning   Last week, we tried very hard to negotiate with several government organizations for these affected people to be directly involved in whatever kind of rehabilitation or reconstruction or resettlement is to happen.   We assured all these organizations that in the camps and with all the groups, CODI is already facilitating a process in which people are discussing, organizing themselves, setting their own plans about how to rebuild their lives, start earning their living again, take care of their food and housing needs, rebuilding their support systems, etc.   

But the government said very clearly, " No!   We don't need any people's process now.   The government is going to give housing to people, and we just need you to get the people to go into these government housing projects."   So what we see happening now, in the third week after the tsunami, is this central conflict - between what the government wants to do and what people need - being played out in many ways and in many locations.  

Delivering all the wrong aid for all the wrong reasons  
The government is taking quite a strong position on this right now.   This may partly be because it's election time and the central government wants to be seen as being in control of the crisis, as delivering relief and rehabilitation very quickly.   Plus, it has already been announced that a sizeable government budget has been allocated for the construction of this housing, the construction industry is now involved,   So it seems there are many other forces at work determining how the government's relief and rehabilitation program works, and most of them have little to do with solving the problems of these tsunami-struck fishing villagers.   

Long term people and short term people  
In the Bang Muang Camp, for instance, the Army showed up suddenly to check out what we are doing there.   So at this point, we may have to slow down our work a little bit, at least until this politically over-heated period passes.   The elections are scheduled for February 6, and things should cool off considerably after that.   But we are long-term people, and they are short-term people , so we're not bothering too much with all this.   We just have to slow ourselves down a little, and be reasonable and try to find the room to deal with all this stuff.   

At any rate, it is clear at this point that some of the post-tsunami housing projects will be constructed by the government, in a very conventional way.   All the hundreds and hundreds of individual houses will be built on sites 4 or 5 kilometers from the former coastal villages.   They will be constructed by contractors, according to exactly the same house-unit design. At least the houses will be free of charge - 100% government subsidized.  

But there's a catch  Whenever something comes free of charge, like these houses, there will probably be strings attached.   If you are the second family living in what used to be a single house, will you have the rights to one of the government houses, or will you have to cram yourselves in with the other family, as before.   And if you had no land title before, will you get a house?   Or what if you are a Burmese migrant worker living with the family you work for, it's not likely you'll get a house.   It will be the government - not the community - checking and deciding who has the right to these housing units, on their conditions.   In this system, there are always intermediaries involved:   the village chief, the local politicians and interest groups who may want some units for their own people.   Then there are a lot of problems delivering these houses to the right people - the genuinely affected families - because the power is with the group that delivers.   It's all about the power of who decides what.    

 This is very different than the approach which sets out to build the community.   If you want to build the community, then you start looking at who are the people in that community, and look at how to strengthen those relationships and ways of living, so you don't need to worry too much about who gets the right to housing, we can just find a way in which community set the rules and decide about it together.   You can concentrate more on how to rebuild that community.   That is your only condition: that the process to rebuild the community.           

Our alternative rehabilitation planning - with people - will continue, however.   Yesterday speaking with the Planning Association.   We are trying to bring planners and architects to so many communities, so they can sit with the people and help them how to help them plan their community and housing reconstruction, in their own ways.   And we will continue with this process.   In fact, the role of these planners and architects will be quite important, because this alternative planning - with people will probably be able to counter what is trying to impose.   And we will try to find constructive way of opening a dialogue between these two processes.  

The key issue is how we can rebuild the lives of these affected people, through the planning process.   It is quite possible for this planning process to strengthen the people, and likewise for the people's involvement to make the planning better, more comprehensive, more appropriate, more sensitive to the realities of these people's lives.   First the planning, and then the housing.   Most of these poor fishing communities and indigenous groups have never before had any assistance from planners and architects - and it's our job to see that in the planning process, they are able to relate their way of living to the present circumstances, with dignity and power.   This is a big challenge for the many architects and planners involved in the tsunami work, and most of them feel excited.   But we have to begin with whatever these communities want, and make help them to make adjustments to whatever is necessary in the changed conditions after the tragedy, and only with the consultation with the people.                                          

Good news :   In some communities, we have been able to get agreement to go ahead and show an alternative model of reconstructing housing, in which people plan and construct and manage the process by themselves, using a planning process which strengthens their way of life, instead of erasing it.

•  Baan Tha Chatchai (a destroyed fishing village in Phuket Province) :   On Friday morning, January 21, there will be a big ceremony to inaugurate the people-managed reconstruction of this tsunami-hit village.   The Deputy Prime Minister, who is in charge of the government's Poverty Alleviation program will join the ceremony, and help erect the first ceremonial column. In that event, we will also invite as many communities from Phuket as possible, so the other communities get a boost, and will try to develop their communities accordingly.   The redevelopment plan is now about 60% finished, and involves relocating the community to land very close by (within 500 meters), where the people will get plots on 30-year lease, but will build their own houses.        

After the Deputy Prime Minister helps inaugurate the Baan Tha Chatchai project, we will go to Phang Nga Province, the province that was the hardest-hit by the tsunami.   He will visit the camp at Bang Muang, where we have invited many other affected communities to meet him there, so there can be a constructive dialogue between the deputy prime minister and the affected people.   This is to get an alternative voice into this rehabilitation process, and to create a momentum to convince government agencies who responsible for the rehousing activities. This is all part of the long, ongoing battle, but we're trying to do it in a diplomatic way!  

 

NEWS FROM ACHR FRIENDS IN THAILAND
20 Jan
Report 2
The second week - from the camps in southern Thailand
Download from the download library here.
This report is in 3 parts
•  A report about the big refugee camp at Bang Muang which is being managed by the tsunami affected people themselves.
•  A report about CODI's tsunami relief and rehabilitation strategy meeting held in the Bang Muang camp on January 8.
•  Some notes on the post tsunami situation in general in Phang Nga and Phuket Provinces, and in other affected areas.

Report 1
Photo Diary of Baan Namkem Camp week 1 - now re-named "Bang Muang" - is on this web site HERE

 

 

 

An e-mail from an activist in Thaiand
warning about LAND of the fisher-folk

"When a fire or flood or any kind of disaster hits a slum you can use it as a way of grabbing the land and in the process look like the good guys who are just trying to protect the poor from living dangerously.
It is the standard out come, the same methodology that the big people and officials have used to get the poor off prime urban land."

 

Jan 10

The SECOND WEEK -

It has been a very busy second week -

I have been in the south of Thailand seeing and working on the tsunami affected areas and process.  I also spent one day with Celine D' Cruz (NGO SPARC India) and Women Development Bank, in Sri Lanka (WDB), visiting the affected areas: talking to the people, mayors and high level government officials; and concluded with discussion with the Women's Development Bank (WDB) core group on their immediate and long term plans to help the tsunami victims (more details about Sri Lanka on SDI bulletin soon). 

  Perhaps, I can make some conclusions about this second week:

1.  In general, I would like to confirm my belief again that the key issues - for the majority of those affected - after the tsunami's sudden and calamitous impact are:

REHABILITATION
COMMUNITY RECONSTRUCTION and
LAND

This unfortunate tragedy has added severely to the issues which most of the fisher-folk in Asia have faced for years: the most important being the insecure and weak land tenure status of most of the low income settlements along the coast. 

Moreover, in Sri Lanka , for instance, where some communities seem to have had reasonably good tenure rights before the tsunami, many may now have to face up to the new laws and regulations to be imposed: communities will have to move one kilometer (later changed to 500 meters and then 300 meters) from the sea shore. This means that it will be very difficult for communities to stay on the same land and will most likely be required to move into higher density housing -which is obviously not suited to the fisher - folk lifestyle. 

In Thailand , there have been similar announcements for new planning directives ( i.e. planned from the top). Some indigenous fisherman groups have informed us that they have been given information that they cannot go back to the former sites - sites where they have lived for generations.

The tsunami affected areas in Asia are those where poor fisher-folk (often being minorities within the country) have not had stable legal tenancy - although if traditional land laws were applied, since they have been there for generations they should have rights.  Depending on the perspective, these are either traditional homes and communities, or informal, or even "illegally" settled areas. - and on valuable coastal land. (Many of the resorts in Thailand - are located on land which were previously fisher-folk communities - who were removed by new laws - and their land then taken by those "with influence" to construct the resorts where fortunes were made for "influential" Thai's, and where many "foreigners" perished) -. 

Now the Tsunami has wiped out many of those remaining communities,   regardless of the tenure systems.  To rehabilitate or rebuild these communities again -   under newly imposed planning systems devised by "the top" and in this new - dangerously commercialized world, - where land has become a commodity - with little social value - means communities affected will face serious problems.
We are attempting to go deeper into the history and present circumstance on this LAND issue and will give more information soon.

  So friends who are working in the countries affected by the tsunami should be aware of the forthcoming serious issues and be prepared - as far as possible - to put forward constructive solutions at this very crucial stage.  Please, try not to wait until the eviction problems happen and we just respond to the injustice - too late.  We may be able to deal with these issues now, with suitable plans - if we have clear understanding and strategies - with  appropriate steps for constructive solutions - in collaboration with the community people.

For the international community, I think it is important to start combining the issues of RELIEF with JUST AND APPROPRIATE REHABILITAION and LAND issues. 

It will be great and extremely helpful if UN-Habitat or UN in general, can make cautious and constructive remarks to the affected governments on this point. 

For INTERNATIONAL AID AGENCIES, it will be good if you can take up the LAND issues agenda and link it with the relief issues.
 
For international MEDIA, we should start trying examine and raise this HIDDEN ISSUE.

If we take up this issue TOGETHER - it may well turn this unfortunate crisis into an opportunity for a just and proper community rebuilding, rehabilitation - if we now look beyond just relief and mere physical rehabilitation.

2.  What we are trying to do in Thailand is:   first - attempting to bring those affected together   - for a variety of reasons - psychological well being;   to provide essential needs; and to plan together for long term rebuilding. 

In fact, there is such a huge vacuum in our system - in our countries in general -that has left so much space for communities to work and assist each other. 

We - at ACHR- will continue to strive to a find flexible budget to support horizontal people to people processes and learning, together with civic process to get information and link together for whatever is needed for work on the temporary housing in the camps and to organize for present needs and for future rehabilitation. 

My trip to Sri Lanka , was to persuade the Women's Development Bank ( a grassroots federation of women )  to further mobilize the community networks and WDB members to work together quickly - particularly in areas where there is a "bureaucratic slowness" and "official" vacuum - in areas where communities affected have urgent needs.  The WDB will have to find ways to get community people to work together on surveys - to collect PEOPLE"S INFORMATION, to assist groups to work in collaboration, to acquire and distribute the basic needs AS A GROUP, build Relief Centers - camps with temporary accommodation where people can live temporarily. ..,.  Then we have to plan for our rehabilitation, negotiate for land, get architects to help in our new settlement planning, etc...

3. In Thailand , at this moment,   we are also trying to mobilize planner/architects to develop with those affected -   alternative plans for communities to  reconstruct communities in the same locations.  It is very important for sensitive planners/architects to provide and promote constructive new possible forms of change - to governments and society. The challenge is how this new   - people sensitive planning - can be done in such a way to solve not only the affected community's serious emerging needs, but also produce a better local environment and meet the needs of the communities, towns and cities;  how real human and social qualities - that existed before the tsunami - can continue - and be strengthened; how justice can prevail for land.  This is the big task ahead of us now.  If we look at Asian conventional systems and power structures, this will NOT be a small task at all.

So these are some thoughts on the second week -   and some progress. 

.................

Jan 6
Some statistics from surveys by the grassroots networks and support NGOs
There are 492 villages in the 6 provinces affedted
135 were affected - 80% of these were fisherfolk villages.
20 villages were severely affected
2,798 houses destroyed
2,887 boats - destroyed

Jan 4 The First Week

Just to give you an information about Thai community process after the Tsunami disaster on the morning of 26th December. 

Till today the death toll in Thailand has gone beyond 5,000 people, 3,800 missing and about 10,000 people injured.  About 55-60% of those who died in Thailand are tourists. The total death toll in the region has reached 150,000 people and seem tit will go far beyond.

THAILAND: On 27th, community networks in the south, NGO groups, civic groups and CODI held their first meeting and assessed the situation together - they agreed to work together.  They divided into 6 teams (about 10 people in each team) to work in all of the affected 6 provinces -   to do two main things as soon as possible :

First to get information about damage that had occurred to communities along the coast affected by Tsunami in all the 6 provinces (Ranong, Pangnga, Phuket, Krabi, Satun, Trang). The work included collecting more groups to work in each province and surveying. 

Secondly to assist people affected in whatever way possible - at this very early stage the needs were: food, water, clothes,  coffins, funerals, teams to search for the dead, temporary shelters etc.,.   
Teams from each province will meet together again on 4th January.

Information So Far

However, from the very initial information, we have the approximate statistics are as follows. 
There are about 470 villages along the coast in the 6 provinces. 
Out of these, about 100-200 villages are affected by the Tsunami and from the very initial information at least 20 villages have been badly hit. 
Some have almost disappeared and have many deaths. 

We are checking how many deaths, how many are homeless, how many houses have been damaged, how many have lost their employment and livelihood. How many require reconstruction. 

I think after we get this information, we will probably have better information about communities affected than any of the Ministries.

I will inform you more precisely after today's joint meeting ( Jan 4).

Reflection on the First Week
We have been involved in many things - this week - since CODI has provided some funds for all the groups initially to make their decisions on whatever they felt was badly needed. 
This is very important since most government or public assistance will work through a slower mechanism within the existing system with behavior to slow things down or without the flexibility needed. 

  If we coukd get funding right to the target group quickly and in such a manner to get them together, this was very important. 
MISEREOR's   assistance will add to this attempt

We were then requested by the Ministry of Social Development to help set up a Center to temporarily assist the victims in Baan Namkem in Pangnga. 
It was a district that was badly hit by the tsunami. 

Within two days we had fiound and purchased about 150 tents, and constructed about 100 units of temporaryy housing, cooking facilitiy, and communal toilets with the assistance of several community networks in the southern provinces and Thai soldiers and police.  It was the first center finished.  Once completed, it drew people who have been scattered by the tsunami, some who had gone to the mountain, some were camped outside hospitals - waiting for news, others around municipal buildings and wats, some just found shelter wherever - now they could come back together. 

It has become a very important center now   - since people are together - psychologically and strategically for future planning - a place for people to plan and rebuild their lives together. 

By Jan 3rd, about 603 families have registered.  Our community organizers are doing their work in this temporary center quite well. 

ROLES for the PEOPLE

It is very important that poor people, the victims themselves start speaking on their own behalf  - about what they want, as a group.  Otherwise, in cases like this, the victims will be just objects of assistance from others outside, and this will increase their powerlessness. They will forever be dependent on other's decisions on what to do, how to live, where to go. 

So this experiment to get people together and to work out what they want as a group and to be supported and backed up by several community networks is very interesting and very important.

KEY ISSUES

The key issues now are not relief   -   we can get carried away with this and it becomes an end in itself - No. 
The issues is on how we can relate the relief attempt with longer term settlement issues.  How to rebuild their future, their community, their lives, ... this is the real challenge and the real name of the game. 

The HIDDEN ISSUE
The situation in Thailand ( and I think - many Asian counties) is that most fisher-folk villages stay on land that has unclear title,   - sometimes semi-public land.  Most communities were very insecure and many were under threat of eviction most of the time.  In the case of Thailand I would say about 90% are under this category.  I would think it may be the same in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Burma.

When land becomes expensive and highly commercialized as in the case of Thailand, most of these communities live under the threat of eviction or currently face some form of eviction.  So this is the key hidden issue.  So the tsunami may help evict these communities from their former sites, if they are not strong enough.  This will be the second tsunami to communities - if we do not plan to work on this strategically.

  So, in Thailand, we are trying to link the process with land issues and how to rebuild secure settlements.  I hope the power of media and public attention may help in this direction.  We will also include all communities under our Slum Upgrading Program as well.  It will not be too easy but we can try.

  So these are some of the points to inform you at this stage. 

We will continue to give updates to friends about the progress in Thailand from here and from other countries as reports come in.

 

Jan 3

The first camp has been established for victims from the fishing village of Nam Chem
A detailed report "The first the day in the life of the new camp of the people of Nam Chem fishing village" will be here tomorrow - - we returned from the camp today.
Summary
We acquired the site for the camp by invasion - desparate for a place to stay, after our homes were destroyed - and delays bureaucracy for "permission" to set up a camp.
Acquiring the infrustructure and tents
The people's committee to run the camp
Supplementary help from the army, police, civil groups , NGOs
The basics completed - food, water, shelter - a place to re-group.
The afternoon circus - photo opts for those who wish -
The evening reflection - by zone leaders of the camp.
Into the night .. the medium and long term future.

Jan 1 (posted Jan 3)

Plans to help fishing villages drawn up 
NGOs to survey damage -
From CODI Thailand

A coalition of NGOs and civic groups will draw up a rehabilitation plan for the fishing communities hardest hit by last Sunday's giant tidal waves in the six coastal provinces.

They decided to hatch the plan during a recent meeting between NGOs, community organizations and the southern small-scale fisheries association.

Survey teams have been sent to the affected communities to assess the damage and requirements in the devastated areas.

A report on the findings will be handed to the southern small-scale fisheries association on Tuesday.

According to an initial survey, altogether about 20,000 fishing families and 2,000 trawlers were affected by the tsunamis in Ranong, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun provinces.

Hamron Mukhura, of the Friends of the Andaman Group, said several of the affected fishing communities have received zero assistance so far due to communication and transport problems, while some are not even listed for help.

"The tsunamis have inflicted so much destruction and left fishermen, whose very lives depended on their fishing trawlers, with nothing," he said.

Amporn Kaewnoo, of the Community Organizations Development Institute, said the rehabilitation plan is a long-term measure that requires cooperation from both the state and the private sectors.

Banchong Nasae, director of the Natural Resources Management Project for southern coastal provinces, said the NGOs and their partners are also helping to distribute aid.   "They are also accepting cash donations," said Mr. Banchong.

 

DECEMBER 30

1.   Hundreds of people are still missing.   Discussions between CODI and the community networks make clear that there will be a big need for some kind of rehabilitation fund to revive the approximately 400 poor communities (population of about 100,000 people) in 6 provinces, which have been destroyed, or badly hit by the tidal wave.

2.   The CODI team from Baan Mankong are now in the south, meeting with CODI staff in the southern region, community network leaders and with people in the affected communities to formulate plans for rehabilitation and immediate temporary housing construction.

3.   The 50-person Community network survey team / working group is still in the communities, working on their survey of affected communities, and will have their meting on January 5th.   There have been reports from this team that there might be more earthquakes or aftershocks in Indonesia, or along different parts of the fault lines in Burma or northern Thailand.

4.   Here are some death and injury figures from December 30, from the Thai government's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation :

- Phuket Province:   263 dead, 1,265 injured
- Trang Province :   5 dead, 66 injured
- Pang-Na Province :   1,208 dead, 5,573 injured
- Krabi Province :   198 dead, 2,649 injured
- Ranong Province :   149 dead, 186 injured
- Satun Province :   6 dead, 15 injured
TOTAL for 6 provinces in Thailand
  1,829 dead, 9,754 injured

 

DECEMBER 29
The Urban Poor networks in the south of Thailand have been mobilized. They report that:

There were 400 communities affected by the tsunami wave in 6 provinces in southern Thailand (Ranong, Phuket, Pangnga, Krabi, Trang and Satoon Provinces.)

The community people have organized themselves into a small group of 50 community leaders to organize immediate relief for these disaster-hit communities.   They have divided into six teams of about 10 people per team, each team working in one province.

Today they are working on doing a survey of the injuries, loss of life and damage in the affected communities.

Thailand's Community Organisations Development Institute - CODI - has granted an initial amount of 1 million Baht to the people's committee and their teams to support the following immediate needs :- food - water - clothes - medicines - tents and mosquitoe nets - coffins for the dead (it's very expensive for the poor, and need to bury the dead quickly because of the heat)

The committee is also trying to use all its linkages with various civil society groups in the affected areas to work together with the community networks to bring relief to the people who have been hit by the tsunami.

Tomorrow, (29th Dec) the committee will be meeting again, using the Southern Region CODI office as their headquarters, in Patalung.

We'll try to post more details about the conditions in these communities and the relief work tomorrow.