lJ|mniE^i?,I,T,T„9.,;M5lf'.LIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 3 1822 01683 1281 IR/PS Stacks HT 169 .M5 C66 1993 iI at- 1 J I J \ Hi ii PACIFIC 2010 Planning the Future Melanesian cities in 2010 © National Centre for Development Studies 1993 This work is copyright. Apart from those uses which may be permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 as amended, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. ISSN 0817-0444 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Connell, John, 1946- Pacific 2010: planning the future: Melanesian cities in 2010 Bibliography. ISBN 0 7315 1694 X. 1. City planning - Melanesia. 2. Urbanisation - Melanesia. I. Lea, John P. II. Australian National University. National Centre for Development Studies. III. Title. IV. Title: Pacific two thousand and ten. (Series; Pacific policy papers; no. 11). 307.760995 Key to symbols used in tables: n.a. Not applicable Not available Zero Insignificant Cover photographs by Norman Plant, Overseas Information Bureau Australian International Development Assistance Bureau Series editor: Maree Tait Editor: Rae Fry Design: May Stinear and Annie Schuster Printed in Australia by Paragon Printers iv PLANNING THE FUTURE Contents Abbreviations vii Acknowledgments vii A call to action 1 1 Urban management in a regional context 16 2 Population and urbanisation 25 3 Urban primacy and regional development 37 4 Urban economy and society 49 5 Urban management and planning 65 6 Against the city 81 7 Land policy 91 8 Housing 103 9 Water supply, sanitation and other services 134 References 155 Tables 1 Populations of Melanesia 26 2 Urban centres in Fiji, 1976 and 1986 38 3 Urban centres in Papua New Guinea, 1980 and 1990 39 4 Urban centres in Vanuatu, 1979 and 1989 40 5 Urban centres in Solomon Islands, 1976 and 1986 41 6 Agencies involved with urban infrastructure 70 and services in Papua New Guinea 7 Government housing programs in Papua New Guinea 108 Map Urban centres in Melanesia Frontispiece Authors John Connell is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Sydney. He first began research in the South Pacific in 1974 when he worked with the Siwai people on Bougainville. From 1981 to 1983 he was Director of the South Pacific Commission/International Labour Office (SPC/ILO) project 'Migration, employment and development in the South Pacific'. Among his publications are a series of SPC/ILO country reports, Migration, Employment and Development in the South Pacific, dealing with Papua New Guinea (1983), Solomon Islands (1983), Fiji (1985), and Vanuatu (1985), and a Pacific Research Monograph published by the National Centre for Development Studies, Migration and Development in the South Pacific. Since then he has continued to produce prodigiously, writing on the South Pacific and islander populations' development and geography. John P. Lea is Director of the Ian Buchan Fell Research Centre in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sydney and teaches in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. He has been involved with development studies since 1969, working in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. In recent years he has been regional planning adviser to the Central Planning Department of the Kingdom of Tonga and to the Regional Council of the Torres Strait. Among his publications are: Housing in Third World Countries (Macmillan 1979); Cities in Conflict (World Bank 1985); Yellowcake and Crocodiles (Allen and Unwin 1986); and Tourism and Development in the Third World (Routledge 1988). Editorial note This monograph, Planning the future: Melanesian cities in 2010, is one in a series which has been commissioned as part of the National Centre for Development Studies project Pacific 2010. As with associated publications, it seeks to highlight the consequences of failing to recognise and plan for the effects of population growth in the island states of the South Pacific over the next two decades. The challenge of planning for the long-term needs of Pacific states is directed not only to the island leaders but also to those in the metropolitan countries responsible for the design and delivery of all forms of overseas development assistance. The objective of Pacific 2010, and the publications which it has initiated, is to present in a clear, focused manner some of the issues which are believed to be of importance to the region's future. vl PLANNING THE FUTURE Abbreviations ADB Asian Development Bank DLPP Department of Lands and Physical Planning (Papua New Guinea) DFP Department of Finance and Planning (Papua New Guinea) HFC Home Finance Corporation (Solomon Islands) IUIDP Integrated urban infrastructure development programming MTWU Ministry of Transport, Works and Utilities (Solomon Islands) NCD National Capital District (Papua New Guinea) NCDC National Capital District Commission (Papua New Guinea) NGO Non-government organisation NLDC Native Land Development Corporation (Fiji) NLTB Native Land Trust Board (Fiji) THA Traditional Housing Area (Solomon Islands) UNDP United Nations Development Programme VULCAN Vila Urban Land Corporation Acknowledgments This study was directed by Rodney Cole, Research Director of the Islands/ Australia Program of the National Centre for Development Studies at the Australian National University. It was funded by the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau. The authors would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO in enabling them to participate in the Second South Pacific Regional Environmental Program Meeting on Climate Change and Sea Level Rise in the South Pacific held in Noumea in April 1992 and to collect additional material for this report. Particular thanks are due to the editorial staff of the National Centre for Development Studies, especially Maree Tait, Rae Fry, May Stinear and Tikka Wilson. Valuable help in Melanesia was given by Wesley Aruga (Papua New Guinea), Ruby Titiulu (Solomon Islands), Stewart Hadfield and Michael Grey (Vanuatu), Sevanaia Dakaica (Fiji), and many others too numerous to list individually. vii O 2010 O viii PLANNING THE FUTURE A call to action In Melanesia urban heritage is being made on the run. A distinctive form of urbanisation has appeared, based overwhelmingly on the rights or non-rights to customary land of different groups of urban residents. Cities are characterised by rapidly growing uncontrolled areas of peri-urban customary land , often on the fringes, and pockets of traditional villages now swallowed up by the expanding town. Modern offices, new tourist establishments and the expensive dwellings of the elite (still largely expatriate in most of the region) co-exist with the low-income Melanesian suburbs and place huge demands on the poorly developed network of infrastructure services. This complex and highly differentiated urban mosaic is rarely under the jurisdiction of a single municipal authority or under overall control by planning legislation. It is the theatre of operations for a host of national government agencies, non-government organisations and commercial enterprises. Sustained maintenance of urban services — the kind of good municipal housekeeping taken for granted in nearby Australia and New Zealand — still appears an unrealistic dream. Melanesian urban affairs are usually viewed from outside the region as lacking financial resources and set in an environment of poor or non-existent coordination (Connell and Lea 1993). Inside the region the disappointments of inadequate and insufficient planning and service provision are felt primarily by the urban poor. Hence inequality within the towns and cities has tended to increase. Coordination of urban management policies is conspicuous by its absence 9 Melanesian cities in 2010 1 It is already apparent that the form and extent of urbanisation has contributed to problems in Melanesia. In some respects these problems have emerged following disappointments with rural development, although until recently the satisfactory incomes and living standards achieved by many in rural areas has slowed the pace of urbanisation. Since the mid-1980s, declining commodity prices and changing expectations alongside continued high rates of population increase have led to faster urbanisation. More rapid growth of cities, with increasing pressure for services and employment, can be expected to put a strain upon national resources into the twenty-first century. Urbanisation is likely to focus increasingly on a small number of cities: the capitals in the four countries studied, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, as well as Lautoka/Nadi in Fiji, and Lae in Papua New Guinea. The need for planning Growth in Melanesian cities comes from two main sources: relatively high rates of population growth, and concentration in cities. In policy terms the former suggests measures should be introduced to strengthen population control whereas the latter points towards decentralisation and improvements in rural development (Slater 1986). To these should be added a third focus for urban policy: measures to adapt and strengthen municipal government and the institutions governing the delivery of urban services. In a very real sense it is difficult to debate improvement in urban policy when the institutions charged with implementation are in no condition to carry them out. This situation is leading governments throughout Melanesia to reconsider the role of the public sector itself in urban management. The steady deterioration during the 1980s of the quality