NUMBER 5 at WUF3

Question No. 3 :   
What about the problems of land? 

Somsook :  We'd like to move to the land question now, because there are serious land problems in these countries.  The tsunami chased so many people out of their land, and they are struggling now to go come back.  How are people dealing with this serious land issue?

Maitree  (Thailand) :  Actually, most of the relief and rehabilitation work the government does is provided in the style of welfare, with the assumption that people are helpless victims, instead of allowing all the problems to be managed by the affected communities themselves.  Also, in most of the cases where there have been land conflicts after the tsunami, the government has mostly supported its own friends in the real estate and tourism sectors, and not given much support to the fishing villages and vulnerable coastal communities who find their traditional land being grabbed by these powerful commercial interest groups. 

 

Somsook :  And that’s why there have been so many evictions after the tsunami.  Because land along the coast is prime land, so after the tsunami, village people suddenly find themselves being visited by outsiders with papers supposedly showing they own the land on which these villagers have lived for a hundred years.  So this causes eviction, this is the problem.

 

Nilanti  (Sri Lanka) :   Most of the people affected by the tsunami are poor people.  They do not have land titles.  Most of them were living in rented houses, in coastal settlements with unclear land tenure status – or on land which clearly belongs to the government.  But in order to receive government assistance to get temporary housing or to rebuild their damaged houses, the authorities always ask for proof of land-ownership – for land titles.  And so because they don't have land titles to their land, they cannot get that support. They were neglected.

 

Jayasuriya  (Sri Lanka) :   After the tsunami, the government of Sri Lanka announced a law to forbid building within a 300 meter buffer zone along the country's coastline.  But in the face of strong protests, they reduced the buffer zone to only 100 meters.  But most of the affected villages and poor communities were still within this 100-meter buffer zone.  So again, there were strong protests around the country, and again they changed the law, allowing people to rebuild.  In the case of fishermen, they have to live in places close to the shore.  Most of the government officials do not show much concern for the people.

 

NEXT: Question No. 4 :   

How are communities dealing with all these problems, in order to transform these difficult situations and rebuild their lives and settlements and livelihoods?