Out of these challenges, two stand out the most: Geography and Scattered settlements. No doubt the affected areas have harsh terrain. Even the logistics officers of United Nations World Food Program engaged in earthquake relief have admitted that the geography, mountainous terrain and poor roads make effective response difficult. Various in-house studies like that conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)-2011 and Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS)-2010/11 have also indicated that access to basic infrastructure and facilities in rural areas is very poor. It is expected that on an average, rural households require over two hours and in mountains as much as a day to reach the nearest urban areas and market. With remoteness and harsh terrain, the difficulty in rescue and relief is further amplified by the scattered settlement in the affected areas.I got to experience the challenges placed by settlements of such nature during my engagement in relief activities in Sindhupalchowk and Dhading districts. For me and my friends, it would take at least two to three hours just to reach one settlement through motorbike and probably the same time to get back. Some road to the settlement needs four-wheelers. We had to waste a whole day before reaching a dozen households with relief materials. This is exactly what I think would have happened with every aid distributer. The option for helicopters in relief delivery is also not always feasible as they need wide and safe open space to land and, in addition, the location should be near the affected area. Hence, it is obvious that it will take a while before things get distributed properly, in spite of their availability.
For a moment, let's scale this scenario up to the rehabilitation stage to broader frame of rural development of Nepal from the perspective of settlements. Basically, human settlements are divided mainly into urban and rural settlements. In our context, rural settlement can further be seen through the concept of linear settlement (A linear pattern of shelter along a road or river), cluster settlement (group of combined settlement together forming nucleus model with a trade or main route) and scattered settlement (spread out shelter with sub-trails).
Based upon the compactness, the Department of Geography at Tribhuvan University has identified three settlement patterns: Agglomerated settlements (contains five or more houses together but not attached to each other); Compact settlements (contains many houses exceeding five and attached to each other) and Dispersed/isolated settlements (less than five houses at one place and some having distance between each homes). CBS survey of 2011 identifies around 83 percent of total population living in rural areas and it is also accompanied by huge number of scattered settlements that has limited facilities, infrastructure and opportunities.
One study by Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) estimates that more than 30,000 such scattered settlements exist. Compared to Tarai and Mountains, there are more scattered settlements in the hills. Given the scattered rural settlement patterns, the per capita costs for construction, operation and maintenance of basic infrastructure and facilities will be extremely high, if we cover the whole scattered settlements. This is where the concept of Compact Rural Settlements (CRS) can be handy. It is the effort to concentrate the scattered settlements to compact core areas with systematic infrastructure, services and economic transitions.
The revision and scientific restructuring of the rural settlements in the form of CRS could contribute in maintaining better access over basic infrastructure and facilities from the state and other sectors. This concept will also complement the 'Residential Area' under land zoning concept forwarded by Ministry of Land Reform and Management through Land Use Policy, 2012, to scientifically plan for the residence in certain areas. Supporters of CRS also claim that it not only maintains better access but also minimizes environmental degradation and disaster risks. It could serve as a win-win approach as rural communities get better access to basic services and planned settlement.
On the other hand, the state and non-state actors could provide an easy concentration of intervention with more efficient and effective socio-economic returns over development investments and resources. CRS could be the window of opportunity for the rural development in this crisis as we have to rebuild all villages affected by the quake including scattered settlements. If we dare, every crisis offers a window of opportunity and we have the reason to take it as one this time. Hence, CRS would be the key for rural development approaches and processes in the country.
This kind of resettlement or relocating people is not a new phenomenon. It has been carried out globally, whether to ease resource scarce geography, relocating due to development projects or resettlement of refugees. Nepal has also adopted mass resettlement program of people from the hills to Tarai during 1960s which had many reasons: to eradicate malaria, ease natural resource pressure, and expand livelihood strategy besides other geopolitical reasons. However, relocation does not mean mass migration to urban areas. It is just to restructure and discourage scattered settlement and bring the settlement into cluster within their nearest possible core settlements in rural areas itself, so that better public services could be provided efficiently.
While making resettlement plans, one's emotional attachment to the ancestral place and customary values should be taken into consideration. Surely, challenges will surface in the process of resettlement and relocation: which/whose land to utilize for CRS, whether private land or public land and if the state should pay compensation for private land if acquisition is made for CRS. These challenges could be addressed by implementing Land Use Policy-2012. However, the challenge weighs less compared to overcoming national earthquake crisis and rural development returns that CRS offers.
The author is the researcher under Land and Migration issues and the visiting faculty at Kathmandu University, School of Arts
kabinchamail@gmail.com
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