16 April 2007
Solomons' citizens in Western and Choiseul provinces now know first hand the terrors of a major earthquake followed quickly on by tsunami waves. It's not an experience they want to live through a second time. Once and once alone is more than enough! Yet, these people can not simply pull up a few tent pegs, move down to their original seaside village site and be expected to start life all over anew. Some thousands of them have been badly 'bitten' and who blames them if they remain scared.
It wasn't merely a matter of a single major shake--8.1 on the Richter Scale--but the constant and continuous after-shocks, many registering over 5 and 6, which so traumatized them. In the two days following the main earthquake on 2 April, scientists world wide counted thirty other major rumbles in the same area. Each time the earth moved under their feet, Western and Choiseul people expected another massive wave crashing in and they were sent into bouts of fear and panic once again.
Couple their first hand experience of a heaving earth followed quickly by a massive sea water flood, and it wasn't surprising that the local rumor mill churned out false stories that with every newly felt shake a brand new disaster was on its way. Some times these rumor-stories would add a bit of color that a ship captain had witnessed sets of gigantic waves out at sea heading for Gizo which already had been pounded by the first big wave. People's reaction would be immediate: flee back to the safety of the foot hills and higher ground.
All their lives have been lived near and, in some cases, right over the sea. For as many years as olos of villages could recall, the sea had been a trusted friend. Didn't it provide abundant food--fish, shell fish, seaweed, etc.--all rich in protein. Wasn't it the only sure way of traveling from island to island to visit family and friends? How else could business be carried out in this watery world of ocean, sea and surf and islands unless by sea? Now?
How would sea resources be harvested again if the sea which had been so friendly to people for so long now seemingly had turned and become an enemy. Many think, 'Can we ever travel its waters again safely?' In the Indian Ocean's Great Tsunami, 26 December 2004, peoples of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, etc. were also devastated by the sea much the same way that villagers in Western and Choiseul province were . The fishermen and people of Southeast Asia too suffered the same fears that now grip our own people. Now more than 3 years after their tsunami ordeal, still some of these people have yet to overcome their fear of the sea.
Hence, Government's post-tsunami rehabilitation plans, especially that of rebuilding home dwellings, is bound to run into the whole land issue. In the Solomons there is no such thing as 'un-owned land'. Although there may be pockets of contested land among village groups, and only a few islands have been completely surveyed, still 'free' land just doesn't exist. The State, in fact, owns precious little of that resource, less than 5% of the total 28,000 sq. km. which makes up Solomon Islands. Also, Government is not really at liberty to confiscate land from people and in the present case would simply compound an already serious problem.
But the present case of a people desperately in need of housing and given a situation that many victims are refusing to return to their original sea side dwelling, perhaps this is the time for an in depth review of land, its meanings, its uses.
Immediately after Cyclone Namu in mid-1986, a Washington-based organization--INTERTEC--sent a team of experts to assess Namu's destruction. Although it's been more than 20 years since this cyclone hit us, still our older people who experienced its force, do not forget at all its serious destruction, when more than 100 of our people died. INTERTEC's guiding principle is that the best time to introduce serious social change is immediately after a major disaster.
For example, Cyclone Namu highlighted how its high gusting winds destroyed many a village house because local building techniques--poor strapping of posts to joists, over use of nails (which had a tendency to rust in the near-sea conditions) rather than cane straps, etc.--had crept into villagers' house construction. INTERTEC's visit to the Solomons immediately after the cyclone alerted the government of the day to remind villagers to return to the stronger building codes of before which could better weather cyclone winds.
Post-tsunami days when rehabilitation will begin in earnest would be an excellent time to reshape village house construction, re-site new villages and in general review living too close to the sea. Already Climate Change is upon us! Not far in the future Climate Change will show its power in the form of higher sea levels, more severe storm patterns and perhaps our recent brush with a major earthquake and tsunami could act as a wake up call for the whole nation.
J. Roughan
16 April 2007
Honiara
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