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Mr. Theodore x. Mitchell
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October 29, 1974
System and (4} Sucial Factors associated with sett:ement.
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Let me
emphasize right now that (1) and (2) are by far the easiest to handle
-- and (1) and (2) represent the greatest strenaths of the Impact
;
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be accommodated. In commenting on the Impact Statement I wish to
discuss in sequence (1) Housing (2) Secial Services (7) the Economic
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Put 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.
And it is much harder to handle the social factors associated with
settlement as well as the institutional factors dealing with the inter‘relationships between settler institutions and those of the agencies
involved in their future -- all of which must be viewed as part of a
single (and very complex) social system.
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(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 pecple have yet to live
in houses of the type proposed. If so, we must distinguish between
what they think they want and what subsequently they decide they want
after living in the new houses for a compiete year. I strongly urge
that a small number of pilot nouses be built for at least some of tnose
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 impect
on the peoples! lives) and make corrections where desirable.
Problems
of maintenance also need to be anticipated in advance and local peopie
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 scveral years, must fall back on inadequate local water supplies
simply because government-provided facilitics are inadequate to start
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