Land sharing experience in Kathmandu

This research is about a case of Land Sharing in Sankhamul squatter settlement, located on a public land along the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu. In the fiscal year of 2007-2008, the Government of Nepal announced a squatter upgrading programme, as a part of which, Lumanti, an NGO working with squatters, proposed a "land sharing" project in Sankhamul to provide secure housing tenure to the squatter inhabitants. The idea was to share the land among owners and occupants and use a part of it for formal housing for squatters and the other part for access to government use. This was seen as a win-win strategy where both the stakeholders could retain the use of land. But this initiative was eventually rejected by the government and squatters despite much planning effort and a year-long negotiation. This study thus identifies abandonment of the proposed Land Sharing project as a major problem and examines the reasons behind it. In doing so, the research aims to assess if Land Sharing was an appropriate tool in the context and consequently recommends measures for the future of Land Sharing as a policy tool for squatter upgrading in the country. The research uses case study analysis as a strategy to investigate the issue. It gathers related data through surveys and interviews and performs qualitative and quantitative analysis to assess the findings with reference to theories. By studying the nature and process of Land Sharing from literature, the study gathers six prerequisites necessary for successful implementation of a Land Sharing project. The research then goes on to evaluate if these preconditions were opportunities or constraints in the case of Sankhamul. The findings show that in fact three of the preconditions were actually constraints- the proposal was technically not feasible, the role of intermediary was not effective and due to the lack of fear of eviction, community consensus did not favour implementation of land sharing. The study also explores if the stakeholders find any other upgrading tools more relevant than Land Sharing in the context and indeed reveals that on-site upgrading is felt more appropriate than Land Sharing in Sankhamul by the stakeholders. The results conclude the reasons behind the abandonment of the project were due to the absence of three essential preconditions and inappropriateness of the Land Sharing tool in the context. Therefore Land sharing appears to be a wrong choice of approach in this particular case. The research also reveals some unique circumstances of preconditions for Land Sharing in this case; which is clarified in this paper and is a contribution to literature for future reference on Land Sharing. This paper also discusses the possible scenario of upgrading for the Sankhamul squatter settlement, and also makes recommendations for the future of Land Sharing as a squatter upgrading tool in Nepal.