
worldbank – Around the world, people are moving to cities in unprecedented numbers. The Pacific Islands are no different. In Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea (PNG), the urban growth rate is around 3% a year – or in real terms, around 64,000 people every year – who are making the move to the Pacific’s largest towns and cities each year in search of work and a better life.
As this ‘urbanisation’ increases, aging infrastructure and basic services are falling far short of needs. People arriving in cities are forced to settle in ad-hoc homes built on marginal lands without land titles. Known as ‘informal settlements’, these communities are often packed with homes hovering on stilts above cleared mangroves, stacked precariously up steep rocky hillsides, or squeezed onto public land along roads and power lines.
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