From Lateu to
‘Refugees’
For information only. Not an official record.
UN Environment Builds Bridges Between Vulnerable Peoples in the Arctic and
Small Islands
Montreal, 6 December 2005 - A small community living in the Pacific island
chain of Vanuatu has become one of, if not the first, to be formally moved
out of harms way as a result of climate change.
The villagers have been relocated higher into the interior of Tegua, one of
the chains’ northern most provinces, after their coastal homes were
repeatedly swamped by storm surges and aggressive waves linked with climate
change.
The relocation, under a project entitled
Development of Adaptation in Pacific Island Countries, underlines the
increasingly drastic measures now underway to conserve low lying
communities as a result of the rise in human-made emissions to the
atmosphere.
Details of the scheme were unveiled at a meeting organized by the United
Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) polar centre, GRID Arendal
in
The meeting, called ‘Many Small Voices, is building
bridges between
vulnerable Arctic communities and those of small island developing states.
The meeting takes place today (6 December) during the 11th Conference of
the Parties to the United Nations climate convention in
Klaus Töpfer, UNEP’s
Executive Director, said: “The peoples of the
and the small islands of this world face many of the same threats as a
result of climbing global temperatures the most acute of which is the
devastation of their entire ways of life”.
“The melting and receding of sea ice and the rising of sea levels, storms
surges and the like are the first manifestations of big changes underway
which eventually will touch everyone on the planet. The plight of these
vulnerable peoples should be a clear signal to governments meeting here in
for current and future generations,” he added.
UNEP, in collaboration with others and with funding from the Global
Environment Facility, is developing National Adaptation Programmes for
Action or NAPAs in more than a dozen countries
including
Other areas vulnerable to climate change are mountain regions where the
melting of glaciers is creating huge lakes whose mud, soil and stone banks
could burst sending huge quantities of water down gulleys
and valleys.
The threat is underlined in the
collaboration with the International Centre for
Development (ICIMOD), have found some 50 glacial lakes that are of concern
in
The research, in collaboration with the Asia-Pacific Network for Global
Change Research, is now being expanded into other areas of the
including
UNEP is looking to secure further funding for this initiative through the
GEF to help to pin point more newly formed glacial lakes at risk of
triggering so called GLOFs or Glacial Lake Outburst
Floods and to develop
early warning systems for such potentially life and infrastructure
threatening events.
The Case of Tegua
The relocation project, formally completed this August, involved over 100
villagers living in the Lateu settlement.
Over recent years the rates of flooding have increased triggering a variety
of problems including increased malaria and skin diseases among children as
a result of more standing water for mosquitoes.
Erosion rates around the village had also accelerated to between two and
three metres a year. The one metre high coral reef, the previous line of
defence against high tides and waves, was being increasingly breeched.
Taito Nakalevu, climate change adaptation officer
with the Secretariat of
the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) which carried out the
work with funding from the Canadian government, said that the villagers
were moved to 15 metre, higher ground, around 600 metres from the coast.
“We are seeing king tides across the region flooding islands. These are
normal events, but it is the frequency that is abnormal and a threat to
livelihoods. People are being forced to build sea walls and other defences
not just to defend their homes, but to defend agricultural land,” he said.
The main relocation constraint for the Lateu
villagers had been water with
the coastal strip having fresh water springs at low tides.
Under the project, water tanks able to harvest rain water, have been
supplied an installed in the interior. The six tanks are able to hold 6,000
litres each giving a total freshwater supply of 36,000 litres.
Other infrastructure, including roofing that feeds into the water tanks,
has also been provided for the newly named settlement called Lirak.
“At least in the case of this community on Tegua we
know that, for the next
50 years, the community of Lirak will be safe from
floods, tsunamis and
storm surges,” added Mr Nakalevu,
whose organization will be working
closely with UNEP on future adaptation projects.
Notes to Editors
The roundtable on the
found at http://www.grida.no/newsroom.cfm?pressReleaseItemID=972. It is
part of Arctic Day at the 11th conference of the parties to the United
Nations Convention on Climate Change.
For More Information Please Contact Nick Nuttall,
UNEP Spokesperson, on
Tel: Tel: +41-79-596-5737, email: nick.nuttall@unep.org
UNEP News Release 2005/63
Mellab Shiluli
Public Information Assistant
Division of Communications and Public Information (DCPI)
United Nations Environment Programme
P.O. Box 30551
NAIROBI, KENYA
Tel: (254 20) 623089
Mobile: (254 722) 705962
Fax: (254 20) 623692
Email: Mellab Shiluli@unep.org
Web: www.unep.org
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