“Tuvalu is Sinking” – Climate Adaptation Plan Needed

Tuvalu, a small island nation in the Pacific, has been battling the consequences of climate change, such as sea-level rise, sweltering heat, fish poisoning, and saltwater intrusion in areas where it grows its food and crops.

Tuvalu looks like a paradise, a tiny scar of sand densely planted with coconut palms and ringed by shallow emerald waters” from the air. However, as a fragile and vulnerable nation, the atoll islands are experiencing the threat of being swallowed up by rising ocean waters and the impacts of climate change almost daily (Roy, E.A., 2019).

“Tuvalu is sinking” has become a catch-all phrase of its people. Some residents claim that they used to see sand stretching out into the ocean, and they could swim on its shores, enjoying the corral beds underneath it. They say the “sea is eating all the sand, ” and the water has become cloudy as the corrals have died (Roy, E.A., 2019).

Tuvalu will become unhabitable in the next 50-100 years, according to scientists, says the article.

Effects of climate change in Tuvalu according to The Guardian article:

• Porous, salty soils have made the ground useless for planting, destroying staple crops and reducing the yield of fruits and vegetables.
• The rising ocean contaminates the underground water supply, and the Tuvaluans are now heavily reliant on rain for freshwater as droughts are becoming more intense and frequent.
• Even if locals want to grow their food, the water is insufficient to supply their household and plant or garden needs.
• Fruits from their native trees, such as breadfruit, coconuts, bananas, and pandanus, do not ripen and fall to the ground, inedible and rotten.
• Fish has ‘become suspect’ as ciguatera poisoning affects reef fish who have ‘ingested micro-algae expelled by bleached corals’. Currently, 10 Tuvaluans experience ciguatera poisoning every week, accounting for 10% of climate-related illnesses, which has also increased. When people consume these fish, they get sick, experiencing diarrhea, fevers, and vomiting.

According to the hospital’s research, other climate-related illnesses and diseases increasing in Tuvalu are influenza, fungal diseases, dengue fever, and conjunctivitis (Roy, E.A., 2019).

Evacuating the islands is the last resort?

With all these happening in Tuvalu and more extreme events expected to come, evacuation would be their last resort, says their Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, according to Roy’s article in The Guardian.

Despite frequent talks from Pacific neighbours that Tuvualuans will be the world’s “first climate refugees, and Australia’s offer for full citizenship to Tuvalu’s citizens in exchange for their country’s maritime and fisheries rights, Tuvalu’s PM rejected these offers, saying that Australia’s offer is an “imperial thinking” and that moving out of the atolls will not solve any climate issues rather it will only boost these industrial countries’ consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions (“One day we’ll disappear,” 2019 May).

Building an artificial island

To preserve their land, identity, and way of life, Tuvaluans are seeking help from the international community. The government proposes creating an artificial island on reclaimed land, 16 square kilometres in area, costing US$280 million (Tuvalu PM Looks, 2019).

The RNZ news article says that the Tuvalu Prime Minister is looking to Japan and other countries to provide financial assistance to the “artificial island” project.

Tuvalu PM Looks (2019 October) provides further information on the said “artificial island” plan:

• The local council plans to “dredge up the sand from the lagoon and build a new landmass in a pocket of shallows in Funafuti’s far south” (Tuvalu PM, 2019).
• This reclaimed land “south of Fongafale will also raise the land 10 metres above sea level and build high-density housing.”

This project of ‘building a new landmass, Dubai-style, will show a runway, port, solar farm, new village for up to 5000 and a reservoir which could be used for farming fish” and will take five years to build (“Tuvalu’s fight to stay,” 2019 August).

The land deposit is already happening naturally in the proposed reclaimed area. The elders are proposing to speed up the deposit of sand and gravel. The Ulu believe this will be their new sanctuary (Round, 2019).

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), an international funding facility, has given $53 million for this project, which would help “extend the foreshore out by a hundred meters long, along a kilometre stretch of the lagoon edge” (Round, 2019).

Our previous blog featured Dr Theuns Henning’s study on the Implications of Sea-level Rise on Coastal Pavement Infrastructure for the Funafuti Airport Runway, Funafuti, Tuvalu.

The airport is significant to the community as it is a crucial link to life outside the atoll nation. It provides access to travel, medical care, work and education opportunities, relief, and other important links to the Tuvaluans. Henning’s study establishes the reality of the rising sea level and its impact on Funafuti.

It will be interesting to see the development of Tuvalu’s climate adaptation and mitigation measures.