Kiribati: An Island Going Under?

The small Pacific Island countries are considered to be amongst the most vulnerable to rising global sea level. According to the national Red Cross and Red Crescent’s World Disaster report of 2005, there has been a 21% increase in the number of people killed by weather-related disasters in this part of the world in the last 20 years. This greater level of risk is predominately generated by their typical physical properties; a high shoreline to land ratio, low lying topography, and a close proximity to sensitive coral reef ecosystems. However, with economies reliant on primary productivity and high rates of rural to urban migration, this vulnerability is also enhanced by interwoven socioeconomic factors.  

The country of Kiribati is one such example. Given that very few points across the thirty-two coral atolls and reef islands are higher than 2 m, it is of little surprise that it is currently encountering problems characteristic with sea level rise. These include severe erosion to coastal areas and a continuous salinisation of water supplies and agricultural land. The latter is generally considered to be the greatest threat to the island, as the porous underground water table is breached by ever rising sea levels, contaminating already limited fresh water supplies. Additionally, the number of ‘king tides’ or storm surges battering the islands has increased from one, to six or eight every year, initiating significant erosion events and chronic flooding. A number of regions have already been abandoned to flooding, how many others will be lost before the end of the century?

Flooding, and the removal of fertile agricultural land has also contributed to large scale internal migration into the more urbanised South Tarawa. As one of the poorest nations in the Pacific (GNI is just $2000 per capita), this area was very poorly equipped to deal with such an influx. As such, overcrowding and poor quality public amenities have contributed to significant declines in public health and life expectancy.

However, a big effort is currently being made to not just reverse this trend, but to better adapt Kiribati to a changing climate. One of the main reasons I chose this case study is because it recently became the first country in the world to have a climate change adaptation strategy commissioned by the World Bank. The programme’s success will undoubtedly be incredibly influential in determining the future of the nation, and I will attempt to analyse current progress in my next post. Can the programme stop Kiribati being the first country to be wiped from the map?