Attitude of affected households towards the mode of compensation and possible issues due to land acquisition for expressway projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Road and highway projects are intended to either build new roads or widen or improve existing ones. Opening up a corridor for a new road requires more space resulting land acquisition and the resultant negative impacts are usually more severe than in road rehabilitation or upgrading. In this thesis, the methodology is discussed in two phases. In the first phase, data were collected using a questionnaire from the households who were affected due to the land acquisition for Southern Expressway and Extension of Southern Expressway. The survey was conducted from 20th May to 17th June 2017. Altogether 86 affected households were selected and interviews who were resettled in Matara and Colombo districts. In the second phase, quantitative data was collected from secondary data sources such as databases available at Government Institutions, published books, journals, and newspaper, etc. Attitudes of the affected households depend on their expectations. If the expectations are fulfilled as they wish, affected people are satisfied with what they received. Almost all the affected households are concerned about the amount of compensation. Because they should find new land to re-build their residence/housing unit or continue livelihoods or bear dedicatory assets. In the selected sample of the present study, 27% of the affected households expressed their satisfaction regarding the amount of compensation. Around 43% of the affected households gave affirmative answers (i.e., yes), while 57% did not answer positively on impacts related to developing of social infrastructures. Further to that, nearly 50% of the affected households had a satisfied attitude on the development of transportation facilities within their new settlements. Around 33% of the affected households had a positive attitude on improving the quality of living, especially among those who were interviewed in the Colombo district. This is due to around 28% of affected households did not face the risk of flooding twice a year after resettlement. Remaining 5% of the affected households were squatters who received 10 perch land by the government. These may create a positive attitude in the minds of the affected households on improving the quality of living when they were adapting to the new location. Nearly, 72% of the affected households, loss of relatives, neighbours and/or friends were the most cited negative social impacts of the project. The opinions of the people were significant and they mentioned that the social relationship among relatives, neighbours, and friends who were isolated. When adapting to the new location, the difficulties that they experienced due to isolation has been one of the factors which caused negative or positive attitudes in the minds of people. v Around 80% of affected households were affected by property loss, such as the acquisition of residential and commercial buildings, shops, and stores. Wells, gates, part of roofs and parapet walls were peripherals that were lost together with the buildings. When the affected households are pushed away, they have to build their life from scratch when adapting to another location than the original place. The living standard and living quality of the affected households were deteriorated due to project activities. Most obviously, the amount of compensation may be insufficient to fulfill their expected requirements. Therefore, the projects should pay particular attention to people with vulnerable conditions (21% woman-headed families) when monitoring and evaluating their situation for their living pattern and income restoration. The government policies are geared to pay adequate compensation regarding money and other provisions for landowners to be able to meet their resettlement requirements based on the criteria given. However, most of the projects have adopted their compensation methods based on the market value. The market value is not sufficient to rebuild their standard of living to a level that was there before the acquisition. Therefore, when valuing the properties of the affected people, replacement cost is the most appropriate one.