The Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Community Development have identified six sites where informal settlements in the urban areas could be relocated to.

Minister Premila Kumar said talks with the International Finance Corporation had started but because of the global pandemic, the project had slowed down.

She said that legitimate home owners and rate payers have raised questions on how some people were getting away with building homes on state land.

Mangroves in Suva have been cut down and now informal settlements are appearing along certain suburbs.

“The only way forward is for the Ministry to go ahead with the strata apartments so we can relocate some of these squatters,” she said.

“This is low cost affordable strata apartments. We do find that when we do upgrading of squatter settlements, the cost is exorbitant.”

Ms Kumar said another reason why squatter settlements were on the rise was because some people built homes in these settlements solely for the purpose of renting them out.

She said the Ministry was hoping that the project would gain momentum so that the next stage of the project could move ahead.

Edited by Selita Rabuku

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