As of 1996, South Tarawa was almost continuously settled from the Bonriki International Airport through Bikenibeu to Bairiki in the west. In 1996, there were 4,885 people living on Bikenibeu island, with an area of . As of 2005, the population was 6,170, living in 831 households. By 2010, the population had grown to 6,568. Migration and population pressure has caused a number of families to build homes on vacant land, becoming squatters. In 1953, the decision was made to build facilities for the medical and education departments at Bikenibeu. A permanent hospital was built at Bikenibeu in 1956. Several ministries are based in the settlement. These include the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development. The Ministry of Health and the nursing school are now housed in a new hospital in the neighbouring village of Nawerewere that was built in 1991 with aid from Japan. This is the country's main hospital for medicine, surgery and anaesthetics, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, and psychiatry, and includes a laboratory, pharmacy and x-ray facility. The general hospital has 160 beds. There is also a dental clinic. A power plant in Bikenibeu provides a mains electrical service; the hospital at Nawerewere is supplied by the grid, and also had back-up power for essential services. After a cholera epidemic in 1977 a reticulated sewerage system was installed, using sea water as the conveyance medium. The King George V school was moved from temporary buildings at Abemama and established in a new building in Bikenibeu in June 1953. The Elaine Bernacchi Secondary School for girls opened 1959, named after the wife of the Resident Commissioner at the time, Michael Bernacchi. Also in the late 1950s, the Tarawa Teacher's College began to operate in Bikenibeu. The two Bikenibeu secondary schools began to be integrated from 1965. They are now a single co-educational school run by the government – KGV/EBS. Education in Kiribati is compulsory and free from age six to fourteen (year 9). Church missions provide secondary education for year 10–13 pupils who fail to be admitted to KGV/EBS. Bahá'í preachers came to Kiribati in 1954, setting up their first centre in Abaiang. The Bahá'í Faith was recognised as a legal religion in 1955.