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Hilia Vavae

Funafuti, Tuvalu, The Pacific Ocean, 4 April 2004

When the tide comes in, life changes on Funafuti, the little island isolated far out in the Pacific Ocean. The inhabitants park their motorbikes and cars in such a way that the penetrating water does not damage them. Indeed at high tide, salt water stands high in the streets. Many people need to sail by canoe to reach their own houses. And several plantations such as the root crop Pulaka, have been abandoned because the plant does not tolerate the salty water.

"I used to think that it would take 100 years before our country disappeared. Now I think it will happen much faster," says Hilia Vavae, a meteorologist managing the only weather station in Tuvalu.

Here thousands of kilometres away from the nearest continent you can almost feel that the sea is taking back what nature spent thousands if not millions of years to create. The highest point on the island is only three metres over the sea, and in some places, the island is only a couple of metres wide. From the east, the swells of the Pacific hammer against the coral coast. In the west, the pressure is lower, from the quieter lagoon. Funafuti is the main island in the island state of Tuvalu, which consists of nine inhabited islands and atolls. It is like many other islands and low-lying regions around the world, threatened by the rising water.

Hilia Vavae bases the pessimistic scenario for the future of Tuvalu on both meteorological facts and on her own observations. Flooding on the island has, according to the meteorologist, become more severe and frequent. Today, there are often floods accompanying high tide from January to May, and again from September to December.

"It has not always been like that. When I started my work on the weather station in 1986, we had floods two months a year and not as severe as the ones we have today," she says.

The water table of the island is measured in two stations situated on the coast put up by Australia. The water table reached its record in March 2001, and was 1.8 metres above normal. This is a problem when the island is not more than a little sand bank or some corals in the middle of the sea.

"That day, outside the station, we had water up to our knees, even though it lies 2.1 metres above sea level," Hilia Vavae says, and points to the photos, hanging on the wall, which document the severe flood. Shorlyt after the water was at its maximum, the seawater forced its way up through the corals, which forms the foundation of the island.

The water tables in the oceans vary. But since 1993, the sea around Tuvalu has raised 5-6 cm. Currently it rises about 5.7 mm per year, according to a report from South Pacific Sea Level & Climate Monitoring Project supported by the Australian government. The project's latest statement shows that the rise of the watertable level around Tuvalu is similar to the average of several Pacific islands such as Fiji, Vanatu, Samoa and Marchall Islands.
 
 

	Funafuti, Tavalu, Pacific Ocean

During the next century, scientists forecast a rise in the water table between 11 and 77 cm. Therefore, the Pacific islands are not the only areas risking problems with rising water. Large areas of Egypt and Bangladesh will disappear if the water rises as forecasted by the scientists, while nothing is being done to build protection such as dykes. In a worst case scenario, millions of people will become homeless.

The cause for the rising water table is being discussed, and most scientists are linking it to global warming that may be causing the melting of the glaciers of the world. Another fact is that warm water takes up more volume.

However, the rising water table is not the only threat against the future of Tuvalu. The island state is also threatened by more extreme weather. Several times during the last years the islands have been hit by severe hurricanes, even though the northernmost part of the island is lying outside the so-called hurricane belt. In 1997, Funafuti was hit by three hurricanes, Gavin, Hina and Helly. Together they eroded half a square kilometre from the 26 square kilometres island state. The last hurricane came in June outside the hurricane season.

A cyclone is created in the Pacific Ocean when the surface seawater temperature is above 27 degrees Celsius. The water heats the atmosphere; it rises and causes an extreme low pressure to form at the water surface. These cyclones can develop into a hurricane, which then wanders around in the Pacific Ocean.

According to Hilia Vavae, Tuvalu will be hit harder in the future. "I think that we will be hit by more cyclones in the future because of global warming," she says.

In March 1997, the hurricane Hina showed what could happen in a small fragile island region such as Tuvalu. On that day, one of Funafuti’s small uninhabited coral islands, Tepukasavilivili, was simply eradicated from the surface of the Earth. Coco palms were taken up and blown to sea and large parts of the corals of the island were washed away so that today the remaining part of the island can only be seen during low tide. Another small, uninhabited coral island, Nasafua, is close to meeting the same destiny.

"That day showed us what can happen to the rest of Funafuti," states Hilia Vavae. Funafuti has also been hit by other hurricanes. In 1972, a storm damaged the island and destroyed many houses and trees. Therefore you see no old houses on the island. Most of the houses are either built in concrete with metal roofs, while primitive huts are built out of wood, driftwood, palm leaves and other similar material.

In 1992 the unexpected happened. The northern part of the Tuvalu Island, which lies outside the hurricane belt, was hit by severe storms. A new pier on the island of Waitupo was destroyed.

"I therefore agree with those scientists that predict that the hurricane belt will be expanded because of global warming," says Hilia Vavae.

Tuvalu has already started to prepare for warmer weather, higher sea level and more severe winds. Currently, two of the residents of the island are finalising a report on how to prepare the population for this development.

The goal is to secure food production, public health, and water resources. Three important topics already hit by problems.

For example, the residents have abandoned several plantations where they cultivated the traditional Pulaka crop. And on a small island exploited to the last square metre, that’s a problem.

"The island has become more swampy, and salt water is penetrating. Many plants cannot tolerate this. In the future we will have to educate people to grow pulaka on higher soil," says Poni Faavae, who is responsible for the report which is supposed to guide Tuvalu into the future. The UN IPCC climate council supports the report.

He shows us a former plantation where weeds have taken over. To call the small lot a plantation is an overstatement because it is not much larger than a small piece of land in a European garden.

According to Pomi Faava, it is also feared that malaria could reach the island.

"Health will be influenced by the increased heat. The more swampy soil and the higher temperature will provide better living conditions for the mosquitoes. Therefore we will need to use spray against them," he says.

On Tuvalu, people are already living with climate change. And very little thoughts are made on how to change the development already in full swing. Here, how to cope with things as they come is the main preoccupation of a quiet and relaxed life. Apart from a polite recommendation to the rich countries to stop the emission of green house gases, Tuvalu tries to go its own way. Many think that the solution is to bring more soil to the small islands. One way to take back some of the land already eroded by the sea is to build on top of the anthropomorphic waste.
 
 

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