Water plan helps sinking Kiribati stay afloat

[Stacey King]

The West Australian Online
2nd March 2009, 13:15 WST

A group of Australian scientists is helping to save a tiny central Pacific island nation from a dangerous byproduct of rising sea levels.

Kiribati is slowly being swamped by salt water, shrinking the land mass and threatening the islanders' precious supply of fresh water stored in underground reservoirs.

A team of experts from the Australian National University in Canberra has devised a plan to help the small nation of 100,000 secure its water supply against seawater and other contamination.

“They're living in a precarious situation in terms of their water resources,” said project leader and environmental expert Professor Ian White.

“They don't know how much they've got, and what they do have is in danger of mixing with salt water as the sea level intrudes and making people very sick.

“In that sense, it was vital to come up with a plan to help protect it and therefore the population who rely on it.”

Kiribati is made up of 33 atolls, almost all of which sit just six metres or less above sea level.

The nation, which has strong ties to Australia and uses the Australian dollar, is considered one of the most vulnerable to climate change in the world, along with Tuvalu and the Maldives.

It was one of the first countries selected by the Global Environment Facility to trial new strategies to adapt to climate change, but a recent survey showed water supply was the biggest and most pressing concern.

Prof White said investigations revealed the underground water supply was in danger of being tainted with salt water or becoming polluted as reservoir areas became more built up.

This was particularly true in urban areas with a density of 12,000 people per square kilometre, significantly more than in Sydney's Kings Cross.

“They have very limited land areas and they're all living over the fresh water reserves and because these atolls are very porous, things get in the water very quickly,” Prof White said.

“As a result, the health issues they face are among the worst in the world in terms of infant mortality to water-borne diseases.”

The new water policy, developed in partnership with Fiji and France, aims to conserve water through sustainable use and efficient management.

Climate change experts have warned that countries like Kiribati have just 50 to 100 years before they lose large areas of land to the sea and salt water renders other land useless for living and farming.

AAP

[Roba]

Sea level rise was one of my major topic in doing my college final papers and I am glad to the nations like Australia,France and others to choose Kiribati to be the first country selected by the Global Environment Facility for this new trial. The people in Kiribati definitely need these kind of help especially getting fresh water.I do hope and pray that this project will be accomplish.