Formal and informal discussions with Bonriki village representatives, Bomiki villagers, other residents of Tarawa and Government agencies revealed a range of conflicting views and opinions. Most of those issues raised by the Bomiki people centred on compensation, land use and ownership. Some traditional land uses, such as the harvesting of coconuts and swamp taro, the collection of fronds and the felling of trees for timber are allowed on the water reserve.
What is not allowed is settlement on the water reserve or the establishment of gardens, notwithstanding there is an increasing number of local houses now constructed on the edge of the water reserve. Faced with these pressing concerns, the recharge study and the processes by which groundwater is recharged were of peripheral, if any, interest to the Bomiki community.
Table 6.1 compares the concerns raised by Bonriki representatives, aired in both formal and informal discussions, and the counter claims by other individual Bomiki villagers, other residents of South Tarawa, and Government agency representatives and staff. It is clear from Table 6.1 that the groundwater recharge study was, unwittingly, part of a wider struggle by the Bonriki people for a range of perceived injustices. Faced with these concerns and anxieties, claims and counterclaims and views, it can be easily appreciated why the groundwater recharge project was of little interest to most of the villagers unless, of course, it backed their claims.
At the final maneaba meeting with the Bonriki community when the results of the project were presented, the information on water evaporation from the water reserve was of little interest to the villagers. They were, however, vitally interested in the results of monitoring the effect of pumping on the watertable. When it was explained that the natural. daily, tidally- induced fluctuation of the watertable was up to five times the maximum drawdown due to groundwater pumping (White et al., 1999), most of the villagers were sceptical.
Following the final formal meeting, a younger, well-educated Bomiki villager explained to the team that most of those present at the meeting understood English and that our translator had got our message a little wrong at times. He said that they had understood what we had told them, but did not believe a word of it. Another water,team had told them the same message some time ago, and they did not believe them either. He and another Bonriki resident who attended the initial training workshop, volunteered that Government compensation was worth more than the production of copra and that there was therefore no incentive to replace the old unproductive trees on the water reserve. In addition, eating habits had changed so that tare was no longer popular. As well, he felt that indiscriminate burning of vegetation on the water reserve at the wrong time of the year by gangs of youths impacted badly on the vegetation. The project’s findings that groundwater pumping had a lesser impact on groundwater level than the natural daily tidal cycle was not helpful to their quest for increased compensation.
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Table 6.1 Concerns of Bonriki villagers juxtaposed against counterclaims of individual
villagers, government staff and other South Tarawa residents (from Crennan, 1998).
Concerns of Bonriki were now using resources on Government land and were not husbanding its resources.
Bonriki water reserve because Coconut trees 40 to 50 years old were not replanted and they viewed it as nublic land. indiscriminate burning of vegetation occurs.
o Not all villagers receive compensation or seek additional compensation. Government representatives claim that compensation is $630/acre/year. It was claimed Bon&i people vandalised pumps and salinity monitoring boreholes to pressure the Government to increase
compensation. It was also seen that politicians were using problems over compensation for political advantage.
a A study of the socio-economic factors involved in the water supply system for South Tarawa had been
conducted (Harrison, 1980). It did not specifically cover impacts on Bomiki residents. The Department of Housing and Construction team met and discussed impacts with the village community in 1984.
LI Bon&i island was used as a US air base in the closing stages of World War II. Colonial Governments did not generally see local consultation as important in issues of public good. Meetings with Bonriki and Buota villagers took place in 1984 as part of The refurbishment of the water supply. They concerned land clearing, tree compensation and installation of gallery systems.
R Overcrowding of villages due to the influx of relatives from outer islands is common to all of South Tarawa. The custom of bubuti means that relatives cannot be refused.
People were moving onto the water reserve and in some instances it was claimed that Bon&i villagers were selling or leasing the land for which they were receiving compensation. Reclaimed land was provided for
resettlement but had been refused.
o Bon&i villagers considered well-off by other residents.
Have many productive breadfruit trees, access to food and fish from the relatively unpolluted lagoon compared with populated areas in South Tarawa. People can earn more from compensation than copra.
R As a result of groundwater
o The Government is obliged to compensate for losses associated with use of the land but not with use of below ground resources. If villagers can prove vegetation impacts due to pumping then a strong case for additional compensation exists. Poor productivity of coconut trees on Bon&i water reserve is because most are old, 40-50 years, have been indiscriminately logged and not replaced and have been harvested by other residents of South Tarawa. Indiscriminate burning of the vegetation has also contributed to productivity decline.
LI Babai throughout South Tarawa over the past 10 years had deteriorated due to attacks from the taro beetle.
Eating habits have also changed.
a Like the rest of South Tarawa, Bonriki village receives free reticulated water. Originally almost one tap per household but lack of maintenance had reduced that to three taps for the entire village. There is no conservation of water and taps were left running.
o Low-lying wells near the lagoon in Bonriki village had been salinised by seawater inundation due to very high tides and storm surges.
o No local employment was generated by the study
although two Bomiki village employees of the PUB were intensively involved in the monitoring of rainfall, stem flow and interception at Bomiki.
P The arrangement of notification of the project and meetings with villagers was the responsibility of
government representatives. Community consultation is an introduced notion, which fails to take into account the complexity of the situation in small close-knit
communities, the time involved for consultation, and the interconnectedness of government representatives and local communities. Foreign donors restrict consultation to a tight schedule not attuned to the local process of
consensus.
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In general, any decrease in plant productivity at Bonriki appeared due to the fact that most of the coconut trees on the water reserve were senile, many estimated to be 50 years old with little evidence of replanting. This, added to the indiscriminate burning of the reserve, points to a lack of care for the area, indicative perhaps that Bomiki residents, like others in South Tarawa, now consider the land partly ‘government’ controlled land. If compensation payment were paid as a regular management fee, linked to good management and custodianship of the water reserve, some of the ongoing anxiety and tensions of villagers with Government over compensation may be alleviated.