09 May 2010
KUWAIT: Failaka, Kuwait's only inhabited island, is to undergo major building and development. Many believe that the large and naturally unspoilt island is being wrongly exploited and the row between government and parliament over the development project has been taking place since the liberation from Iraqi occupation in 1991, delaying the project by almost two decades. Finally, however, the Kuwait Municipality and other administrative authorities have decided to get to work on the development, with the municipality forming a team that prepared a detailed plan of the work to be carried out. The conclusion of the team's work and its issuing of a report detailing its findings was marked by a press conference held on Thursday at the municipality headquarters.
The municipality Director General has issued an official decree, No. 1/2009, to form a team that will observe and check the present situation in Failaka Island. This includes the private and repossessed properties, and all lands, farms and buildings on the island, including those whose possession is contested.
Through our work as a team, we tried to complete a detailed plan and report about Failaka and the urban, monuments, historical locations and public and private properties on the island in the present time in 2009. We hope that the results of this study that will be presented to the decision makers, will help in taking the suitable decision regarding developing the construction in the Island," said Khalid Al-Obaid, the head of the team and the director of the municipality's legal department.
The present human use of the Island is limited, he explained. "Most uses are concentrated in the northern-west area and the southern beach of the Island, which is a residential area next to the main port, and the port area at the southern-west of Failaka. There are few chalets available on the island that provide the only tourism activity in there at present. The rest of the location consists of cemeteries, historical locations, government-owned areas and utilities. These account for around 70.44 percent of the island's total space, and the rest is marshland," noted team member Engineer Awatif Al-Matrood.
According to the report, residential living space currently makes up only 1.7 percent of Failaka Island. "We created a table dividing the percentage of the different usages in the island," Al-Matrood explained. "The lowest percentage among all the activities was commercial activity, which occupies only 0.072 percent of the total land, while the highest percentage was for the open and green lands, which occupy 29.26 percent.
The study also focused on other specifications. "We also divided the state property lands depending on the purpose and use of the spaces. Some exist already, others not yet or are not in use. Also the use of some areas was not specified yet. In total the public property makes 89.9 percent including 396 utilities, while private properties make up 1.03 percent, including 162 properties on Failaka," she explained.
Al-Obaid then explained the court case which the Kuwait Municipality lost recently, in which it was forced to compensate the owner of land in Mangaf to the tune of KD 5.5 million. "The court decided that the owner had gained the possession of this land by his continuous use of it for 36 years. The government then decided to specify this land for a public park. Later the government changed the purpose of using of this land to residential usage, and built a housing project on it. They didn't expropriate the real-estate, however, so the court approved financial compensation for the claimant of five and a half million dinars. And we believe in the justice of our courts," he said.
KUWAIT: Failaka, Kuwait's only inhabited island, is to undergo major building and development. Many believe that the large and naturally unspoilt island is being wrongly exploited and the row between government and parliament over the development project has been taking place since the liberation from Iraqi occupation in 1991, delaying the project by almost two decades. Finally, however, the Kuwait Municipality and other administrative authorities have decided to get to work on the development, with the municipality forming a team that prepared a detailed plan of the work to be carried out. The conclusion of the team's work and its issuing of a report detailing its findings was marked by a press conference held on Thursday at the municipality headquarters.
The municipality Director General has issued an official decree, No. 1/2009, to form a team that will observe and check the present situation in Failaka Island. This includes the private and repossessed properties, and all lands, farms and buildings on the island, including those whose possession is contested.
Through our work as a team, we tried to complete a detailed plan and report about Failaka and the urban, monuments, historical locations and public and private properties on the island in the present time in 2009. We hope that the results of this study that will be presented to the decision makers, will help in taking the suitable decision regarding developing the construction in the Island," said Khalid Al-Obaid, the head of the team and the director of the municipality's legal department.
The present human use of the Island is limited, he explained. "Most uses are concentrated in the northern-west area and the southern beach of the Island, which is a residential area next to the main port, and the port area at the southern-west of Failaka. There are few chalets available on the island that provide the only tourism activity in there at present. The rest of the location consists of cemeteries, historical locations, government-owned areas and utilities. These account for around 70.44 percent of the island's total space, and the rest is marshland," noted team member Engineer Awatif Al-Matrood.
According to the report, residential living space currently makes up only 1.7 percent of Failaka Island. "We created a table dividing the percentage of the different usages in the island," Al-Matrood explained. "The lowest percentage among all the activities was commercial activity, which occupies only 0.072 percent of the total land, while the highest percentage was for the open and green lands, which occupy 29.26 percent.
The study also focused on other specifications. "We also divided the state property lands depending on the purpose and use of the spaces. Some exist already, others not yet or are not in use. Also the use of some areas was not specified yet. In total the public property makes 89.9 percent including 396 utilities, while private properties make up 1.03 percent, including 162 properties on Failaka," she explained.
Al-Obaid then explained the court case which the Kuwait Municipality lost recently, in which it was forced to compensate the owner of land in Mangaf to the tune of KD 5.5 million. "The court decided that the owner had gained the possession of this land by his continuous use of it for 36 years. The government then decided to specify this land for a public park. Later the government changed the purpose of using of this land to residential usage, and built a housing project on it. They didn't expropriate the real-estate, however, so the court approved financial compensation for the claimant of five and a half million dinars. And we believe in the justice of our courts," he said.
By Nawara Fattahova
© Kuwait Times 2010
