Human Settlements

Jamaica has never implemented a comprehensive settlement policy, and sectoral policies having important settlement implications have been undertaken without consideration of them with the exception of the recommendations in the recent Green Paper #4/94 Towards a Land Policy for Jamaica.

Human settlements are plagued with persistent problems as a result of population growth coupled with industrial and commercial expansion which has resulted in intense competition for land. The population of Jamaica is expected to increase to 3 million by the year 2000 and 60 percent of this population is projected to be urban. Current problems in urban settlements include urban sprawl, unplanned development, inefficient use of space, urban blight, scattered development, housing shortages, increasing shortage of land, lack of employment opportunities and disparity in the provision of facilities and amenities. Poverty, economic marginalization and the rural urban drift result in squatting and unplanned developments which only compound these problems.

The absence of integrated urban and rural development has led to a high incidence of rural/urban drift. During the period 1970 - 1982, the number of persons living in urban places increased from 41.2 percent in 1982. The overall settlement pattern is one of virtually no increase within the rural areas and of increasing urban growth. The larger urban areas are tending to sprawl and expand into rural ones. Movements from the central areas of urban areas are tending to augment rural-urban migratory flows, as well as natural increase within peripheral zones. Some settlements are tending to decline as their economic bases become eroded. Former rural areas are acquiring urban characteristics. The location of jobs, services and housing facilities have been found to be the major determinants of migration flows. The greatest pressure for land for urban development occurs in Kingston, St. Andrew and the neighbouring parish of St. Catherine where the two largest concentrations of urban population (Spanish Town and Portmore) outside of the KMA exist. It is in St. Catherine that competition for land between urban and agricultural development is most intense.

A National Spatial Strategy was outlined in the National Physical Plan 1970 -1990 and further revised in the 1978 -1998 Plan. This strategy was to guide socio-economic development efforts so that the rural/urban drift to the KMA and other main towns would be minimized and, to make the rural communities more attractive as a place of residence. Integrated rural development will go hand in hand with the decentralization of industrial districts, as a priority for future public and private investments, and to stem the rural-urban drift.

The strategy has had limited success to date due inter alia, to fact that some of the most powerful factors affecting urbanization are outside of the strategy, the benefits and cost of undertaking a national decentralization policy have not been measured and national urbanization strategies have tended to operate apart from other social and economic policies. An overview of the National Spatial Development Strategy was recently done by the Town Planing Department under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme/United Nations Council on Human Settlements (UNDP/UNCHS). The report recommended approaches to be adopted to implement an effective National Spatial Strategy.

Attempts at rural development have been made through the agricultural sector, but these have been very ineffective, largely because of their non-comprehensive nature. Efforts have also been made to influence the direction of growth through the establishment of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) in 1968 to stimulate economic development. Consequently, it implemented redevelopment projects in designated areas. The majority of the Corporation's projects are concentrated in the KMA, Montego Bay, Negril and Ocho Rios. Projects in the last three areas have been resort oriented. The agency also been involved in the shelter programmes. The Corporation has been implementing the Rural Township Comprehensive Development funded by the Inter-American Development Bank which involves the up-grading of schools, hospitals, health centres, roads and drainage in growth centres identified in the National Spatial Strategy.

The heavy flow of migrants into the urban areas has been much greater than the ability of Government to provide serviced lots for low-income settlements. This has resulted in significant residential squatting where the landless have established spontaneous settlements without permission or guidance and without minimum installation of infrastructure.

Government has recognized that urbanization and rural development are complementary and fall within a single settlement framework as an integral part of a national development strategy.

Government will continue to support economic development and employment generation through incentives in the already established hierarchy of district, sub-regional and regional centres. The intent is to make rural communities more attractive as places of socio-economic prosperity so that residents of the principal urban areas will be encouraged to relocate and remain in the communities. Social services will be provided with the emphasis on education and health facilities.

Over the next three years Government will accelerate the process of providing land to accommodate a range of shelter solutions to ensure sound health, environmental and construction standards with emphasis on low-income and self-help housing types and tenure patterns. It also will favour high density housing solutions in order to minimise further urban sprawl.

Finally, Government will elaborate a comprehensive settlement policy that would establish the framework within which sectoral policies and national investment can be coordinated. This should incorporate the issue of public transport and utilities infrastructure.