It’s nightfall and you are rudely awakened from deep sleep. A group of armed men tear down your front door, you are pushed out of your house and your belongings thrown on the streets. The street is swarmed by men clad in military uniforms. Your home is bulldozed and all of your belongings reduced to a rubbish heap right in front of you. Within a short span of time, this exercise extends to your entire neighbourhood. You receive no offer of relocation or compensation for your loss. Such incidences of urban evictions are not uncommon in cities across the globe, often carried out by the state – the protector of the rights of its citizens. Evictions are conducted for many reasons; for city beautification, to make way for development and infrastructure projects, and to clear cities of encroachers without legal title to lands.
Since 2010, media reports state that such scenes have been witnessed in Colombo, that residents of households in parts of Slave Island, Wanathamulle, Central Colombo and other areas have been evicted from their homes and places of livelihood activities. Many of those evicted are the poorest and most vulnerable in the city including low income wage earners, children, the elderly and the disabled. The media has also reported that the government has identified 60,000 families to be evicted from prime lands in Colombo so that these properties can be released for ‘development’ activities’. It is reported that this initiative is part of a broader initiative to beautify Colombo under the ‘City of Colombo Development Plan’. As part of the process of accelerating this plan, the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and the Land Reclamation and Development Board have been brought under the Defence Ministry.
Against this backdrop it is pertinent to refer to the election manifestos of the main Mayoral candidates for the Colombo Municipal Council from both the UPFA and the UNP, specifically their commitment to make Colombo a safer, cleaner and a more liveable city. Proposed activities by the candidates to achieve this vision include; construction of new housing units improving solid waste collection, improving basic infrastructure such as pipe borne water connections and revamping the sewerage system. Both candidates recognise that much of the city population lives in low income housing and have committed to upgrading existing houses and to building new housing units. In constructing new housing, commitment to relocation within the city limits is important, as low income city dwellers are very much a part of the city structure and social fabric. They have livelihoods which are linked to city living which cannot be immediately restored by relocating them out of the city.
Both candidates have committed to constructing new households. The UNP candidates’ manifesto states that 65,000 new houses will be built while the UPFA candidate commits to building 35,000 housing units within three years. The manifestos do not state where these residents will be housed until the new housing units are ready, although the UNP candidate does state that alternative accommodation will be provided until the new housing units are ready for occupation.
Colombo is to be developed and beautified not only to be the capital city of Sri Lanka but to be a regional capital. In attaining this state, the UNP candidate acknowledges that there could be ’winners’ and ’losers’ but that the intention is to beautify and develop the city in such a way that ‘no one is left behind’ and ‘everyone will be a winner’. There is therefore recognition that some citizenry could be negatively impacted by activities which are to be carried out in aspiring to this vision. This recognition is commendable given past experiences of evictions which have taken place in violation of international human rights law, international humanitarian laws, guidelines such as the United Nations Comprehensive Guidelines on Development-Based Displacement and our very own National Involuntary Resettlement Policy (NIRP).
The NIRP was formulated in 2000, approved by cabinet and adopted by the government in 2001. The Southern Transport Development Project (STDP) was the first instance that the NIRP was implemented. As indicated in the title it is a ‘National’ policy, providing principles, rules and norms to protect people displaced by all development projects. The policy requires implementing agencies to submit detailed Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs) for all projects displacing people and requires project authorities to pay compensation for land at replacement value. The policy specifically states that impoverishment should not take place as a result of compulsory land acquisition and that people ‘who do not have documented title to land should receive fair and just treatment’.
The policy also assigns specific institutional responsibilities to the Ministry of Lands, the Central Environmental Authority and Project Implementing Agencies.
The NIRP is not averse to development activity or city beautification programmes but was developed to safeguard those who are likely to suffer the negative impacts in the process of development, specifically when land acquisition occurs. The policy states that those negatively impacted should be compensated and helped to restart their lives and livelihoods at new locations. The major shortcoming of the NIRP is that it is merely a policy document, and as opposed to a law of the land, the NIRP is not legally enforceable but relies on moral obligation for implementation. While attempts have been made to give the NIRP legal clout and enforceable in a court of law, these efforts have been resisted by policymakers and bureaucrats.
However, the NIRP has been adopted in a few development projects; namely the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP) commonly known as the Southern Highway, the Lunawe Environmental Improvement and Community Development Project and the Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project. In the STDP for instance, the policy was applied and affected persons who did not have legal title to land were paid cash compensation and provided freehold title to land plots in the resettlement sites. Some amendments to the Land Acquisition Act were also made in 2009 to facilitate the payment of compensation. There are therefore examples where the negative impacts of displacement have been recognised and attempts have been made to mitigate these impacts through social safe guard mechanisms already in place such as the implementation of the NIRP.
Considering that the overarching objective of development is to benefit society at large and that nobody ‘should lose’ in the development process, the election rhetoric alluding to a more inclusive growth and development strategy is welcome. Whichever candidate wins, we urge him to implement the NIRP as the first step in ensuring there are no ‘losers’ in carrying out the programme to develop and beautify the city of Colombo. |
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