PORT VILA (Port Vila Presse/PINA) — The Pacific Islands Climate Change Assistance Program office here is planning to re-settle more than 40 villagers in Vanuatu’s northern islands.
They are from Letau, the sole village on Tegua Island in the Torres group. Their village is slowly losing a battle with the sea.
Coastal erosion has posed a lot of problems.
During high tide, sea water seeps through the porous coral inland and floods the village.
Homes have to be built on stilts or raised with rocks to avoid the water while fire places have to be raised so that they are above the normal ground level.
During heavy rain the village is flooded. Malaria is common.
The encroaching sea has also contaminated the villagers’ freshwater source.
Brian Philips, of the program, said: “We don’t know the exact extent of its coastal erosion. But we’re hoping to get satellite imagery from (the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission) to show us exactly how much of the coast has been affected.”
He said some villagers estimate that they’ve lost around six meters of the coast in the past 10 years.
The Apia-based South Pacific Regional Environmental Program has approved Vt42 million for Vanuatu to cover its projects on adverse effects from climate change. The relocation of Letau villagers is part of the program.
“Their ground water well is already saline,” Philips said. “They also have coastal springs but are only accessible during low tide. At high tide, they are saline.”
They now depend on the rain for water. Rural Water Supply has made cement tanks for the villagers, with catchments thorough building sheds with iron roofing and gutters to channel water into the tanks.
A contributing factor to Tegua’s problems could be tectonic, that is movement of the earth’s crust, such as through earthquakes.
