A/HRC/18/35/Add.6 Additionally, France negotiates development programme contracts with New Caledonia, the provinces, and the communes every five years. These contracts include substantial funds for development activities that flow directly to the provinces and the communes. The next set of contracts, for the period 2011-2015, is expected to be valued at 44 billion CFP francs28 (US$727 million). 52. Although there is no explicit goal of rebalancing along ethnic lines, with significant majority Kanak populations in North Province and the Loyalty Islands, the indigenous people in these areas are likely to benefit from the rebalancing initiatives. However, rebalancing is not sufficient to rectify persistent disparities based on generations of discrimination, particularly for Kanaks in South Province, who do not benefit from rebalancing programs and have limited representation in their Provincial Assembly. 53. Urban Kanak poverty is a growing concern. Roughly 8,000 Kanaks live in precarious housing settlements (often referred to as “squats”) in Greater Nouméa, without access to municipal water, electricity, or sewage services.29 Available public housing is insufficient to meet demand and Kanak residents question the structural integrity of the housing constructed in the 1970s. The Special Rapporteur was interested to hear about recent initiatives by the provincial government to shift resources towards developing the spontaneous settlements into permanent housing with adequate living conditions and services. This initiative is based on the understanding that the physical layout of the spontaneous settlements better approximates Kanak cultural patterns. 54. Urban Kanak communities in Nouméa suffer exposure to raw sewage and dangerously polluted water in the Bay of Tindu, a lagoon abutting the Tindu and Montravel neighbourhoods, which has been closed to swimming, fishing, crabbing and other traditional uses by the Kanak people since 1992, due to high levels of bacteria in the water. Despite the closure, the Kanak continue to use the bay, exposing themselves to high levels of contamination. Community organizers express frustration at the lack of urgency on the part of the Government to rectify the situation. Nouméa municipal authorities have stated that clean-up operations in the bay will be completed in 2016. 55. Residents of Kanak neighbourhoods in Nouméa expressed additional concerns about exposure to dangerous toxins from the 100-year-old Doniambo nickel-processing plant, which has been engulfed by the expansion of Nouméa’s industrial and residential areas. Residents claim that the plant dumps waste directly into the lagoon, damaging the mangroves that line the coast, and provide essential habitat for crabs and fish on which Kanak sea clans traditionally depend. Levels of atmospheric sulfur in the area around the Doniambo plant were reportedly above international limits in 2010.30 56. The Kanak people’s ability to lead change is hampered by the severe shortage of Kanak professionals. There are no Kanak lawyers, judges, university lecturers, police chiefs or doctors, and there are only six Kanak midwives registered with the State health system, out of a total of 300 midwives in New Caledonia. The “400 cadres” programme (discussed in sect. V above) is one of the few examples of a programme specifically targeting Kanak youth and aimed at building a class of Kanak professionals. Since much of the professional training for citizens of New Caledonia is done in metropolitan France, training individual 28 29 30 16 Information provided to the Special Rapporteur by the Customary Senate, 8 February 2011. See “Les squats du Grand Nouméa: un phénomène urbain original,” Le Monde.fr (5 December 2009), available at http://villes.blog.lemonde.fr/2009/12/05/les-squats-du-grand-noumea-un-phenomeneurbain-original/. Information from community representatives on a tour with the Special Rapporteur, Nouméa, 6 February 2011.