Towards a settlement strategy for South Tarawa: a report prepared for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Rural Development, Kiribati

Abstract

The present population of South Tarawa is 25,000 people. Projections of growth suggest that by the year 2010, that is, in sixteen years time, the population will be somewhere between 35,000 and 46,000. The lower figure can only be attained if in-migration and fertility rates are sharply curtailed now; the higher figure assumes present patterns of growth continue unchanged. If resource and land management also is unchanged, this population increase will worsen present problems with congestion, public health, water supply, waste management and environmental degradation.