NDC Launches Phase 2 Of Squatter Campaign

The National Development Corporation is getting ready to unveil the second phase of a comprehensive public education and sensitization campaign on the troublesome issue of unplanned development; more commonly referred to as Squatting.

Phase two of the campaign consist of a series of public service announcements to be broadcast on radio and television, targeting occupiers of NDC administered lands, largely in the south of the island, where the problem of squatting is most acute. The campaign seeks to explain the processes and steps involved in gaining access to basic infrastructure amenities such as water connections and highlight the advantages of recently instituted internal procedures designed to work in tandem with the Water and Sewerage Company's (WASCO) meterization drive.

NDC's Technical Services Manager John Labadie says in the past the NDC faced unjust criticism for not granting permission ad-hoc for water connection. He says, "Even in cases where permission was easily granted, residents opted for the most convenient methods of connection which created encroachments disputes, unsightly and indiscriminate connections and in some cases lead to interruption of water services when developmental infrastructural works were conducted."

Labadie says Phase Two of the campaign addresses those issues and reiterates the notion of the NDC as a model land developer, facilitating structured land ownership within the confines of proper developmental practices. Phase One of the campaign got underway in 2008 and highlighted the illegal nature of squatting along with the many social ills associated with the practice namely; the lack of access by emergency services, poor drainage and land slippages to name a few.

The NDC is the custodian of over four thousand acres of land in the south of the island.