1.11 Land Tenure and Social Vulnerability to Flooding in Tonga.pdf

7/29/2019 1.11 Land Tenure and Social Vulnerability to Flooding in Tonga.pdf

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ClimateChangePresenter: Professor Jon Barnett


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Land tenure is:

access to and use of land

and the resources on it

a form of property right which

arises from the function offormal and informal

institutions

a mechanism for social

control

Land Tenure and Social Vulnerability to Flooding in Tonga


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Secure access to land reduces

vulnerability to climatechange:

Land can be used as collateral

on loans

Investments in land are legallysecure

Land provides a means of

subsistence

Land, if leased or sold, can beused to generate income


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Land and mobility in Tonga

1882 Tongan Land Act: the right of

males to :

- a tax allotment of 3.3 hectares forfarming

- a town allotment of 0.16 hectares for

housing

But ratio of eligible males:to tax in Tongatapu = 2.6 : 1

to town allotments in Tongatapu =

1.9 : 1

so more people than land

Landlessness = poverty


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Options for the landless:

Lease

Share

Leave

Seek an allocation from ahereditary estate

Seek an allocation from the

Government

Squat


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70 households /456 people

A squatter settlement on government land,not serviced by mains electricity or

telephone lines, only a few households

have piped water

Began with informal fishing shacks in late1950s

From mid-1970s temporary settlers began to

remain permanently, growth through

cumulative migration

Nukualofas main open pit rubbish dump

since the 1940s - 2007: household,

agricultural, industrial and medical waste


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280 households, 1,714 people

allocated to the public after

Cyclone Isaac 1982

government contributed to the

cost of building the main road,

all costs relating to filling inside

the lagoon, or on land prone

to flooding, were met by

households.


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Survey of 76 households

41% in Patangata and 54% inPopua - stated that their land

was inundated after any heavy

rainfall events and/or high

tides (particularly spring tides),and that this could occur asoften as once every few

weeks.

Flooding and its impacts


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41% in Patangata and 57% in

Popua considered thatflooding was a seriousproblem for them.

Impacts include:

wading knee or ankle-deepthrough water in order to leaveor access the house;

solid, human and animal waste

washed in with flood waters;

risks to children of falling intodeep or contaminated water


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Impacts

inability to grow on plots;

damage inside household if flood waters

rise above thresholds;

costs of maintaining land against erosion;

standing pools of water which attract highnumbers of mosquitoes;

vehicles getting stuck stuck;

unpleasant smells after flood waters

recede.


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Who gets flooded?

Location:

Low land gets flooded most

In Popua, it is said that the people with thebest connections to the Minister got the

best land:The allocation process in Popua was

unfair. There are empty plots everywherewhich belong to people who liveoverseas, or who used to work for the

government but live somewhere else.

They havent developed their plots, they

just took the land because they could,and then they left it. Yet the people whoactually have to live here get the worst

plots, which are uninhabitable


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In Popua some land, including some of the

best land is not developed acquired asinvestments, or not yet developed becauseof cost (116 blocks not developed)

In Patangata, early settlers acquired the best

land distant from the dump, and on higherground. Later settlers:

Away from the dump, at the rear of

established sites on lagoon edge

Closer to the dump, on ground that is both

high and low

Very close to the dump, on flood prone land


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Tenure:

In Popua, registered land owners investin housing, and land reclamation and

maintenance works

- tenants who lease invest far less in

house and land

In Patangata, early settlers have

substantial homes good sites, good

incomes, and 30+ years of occupation

- later settlers invest little, have poor

sites, and fear displacement


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Cost

- of land reclamation and flood defencesIn Popua distance from main road

increases costs, as have to build up the

road as well

- costs between TOP 3,000 and 10,000 to

establish a site

- and 280 900 / year thereafter to

maintain site.

But dont invest if dont have secure

tenure.

Respondents with a higher average weekly

income were less effected


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So people with secure land tenure,

and money, can afford to invest inworks that reduce flood risk

- and they are less affected by

flooding that those without insecure

tenure, and/or who have lower

incomes


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Conclusion

Land tenure in Tonga creates vulnerability to

flooding.

The institutions of land tenure favor those

with social and financial capital and

discriminate against those who do not

But the flooded are not without reason, or

agency (dont assume powerlessness):

Lots of people mock and look down on us,

but we are proud. They wonder why we all

choose to live in a swamp and dont try to

get land somewhere else instead. Its

because we may be in a swamp, but we

have our freedom

Documents

1.11 Land Tenure and Social Vulnerability to Flooding in Tonga.pdf