G gt Mr. Theodore R. Mitchell 2 October 29, 1974 be accommodated. In commenting on the Impact Statement I wish to discuss in sequence (1) Housing (2) Social Services (3) the Economic System and (+) Sociai Factors associated with settlement. Let me emphasize right now that (1) and (2) are by far the easiest to handle e- and (1) and (2) represent the greatest strengths of the Impact Statement. But while it is relatively easy to provide improved housing and social services, it is much harder to create viable land and water use systems -- indeed it is here that most settlement schemes fail. Andit is much harder to handle the social factors associated with settlement as well as the institutional factors dealing with the interrelationships between settler institutions and those of the agencies involved in their future -- all of whicn must be viewed as part of a singe (and very complex) social system. (1) Housing. Though Holmes and Narver should be complimented on the extent to which they have taken into consideration the stated desires of the Enewetak people and their system of land tenure in proposing house types, as I understand the situation, the people have yet to live in houses of the type proposed. If so, we must distinguish between What they think they want and what subsequently theydecide they want after living in the new houses for a complete year. I strongly urge that a small number of pilot houses be built for at least some of those involved in the initial cleanup operation, so that the people will have a chance to assess their strengths and weaknesses -- to work the bugs -out of them, so to speak, before the main construction program tends to rigidify their family structure and social organization in concrete. for years to come. One thing that planners and architects tend to forget when providing housing in permanent materials, is that discrete structures in non-permanent materials provide more flexibility. Before pouring concrete one should try to anticipate some of the implications which inevitably will arise (and which will have an impact on the peoples lives) and make corrections where desirable, Problems of maintenance also need to be anticipated in advance and local people trained to maintain their own structures. A major problem associated with many settlement schemes relates to provision and maintenance of adequate water supplies. Though the plans incorporated in the reports look good to me, I just want to mention this general difficulty for the record, and to emphasize the need to provide the simpliest facilities possible in terms of (1) peoples needs and (2) their hopes -- with the second factor being far less important than the first. I have seen too many projects where people, after several years, must fall back on inadequate local water supplies simply because government-provided facilities are inadequate to start