Tuvalu: The Poisoned Lens
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In recent years, the sovereign nation of Tuvalu in the Pacific has become synonymous with Climate change, environmental refugees and sea level rises, however, more immediate environmental problems such as population growth and poor coastal management threaten the very livelihood of those who inhabit this tiny coral atoll.
Gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1978, Tuvalu today is a constitutional monarchy with its government practicing parliamentary democracy. Some 97% of Tuvaluans are members of The Church of Tuvalu, a protestant church. The evangelisation of Tuvalu had begun as early as 1865 by protestant congregationalists from the London Missionary Society and the peoples conversion to Christianity was complete by the 1920′s. Between 1862 and 1864 Tuvalu was one of the hardest-hit Pacific Island groups by Peruvian slave raiders (blackbirders) with over 400 people taken from Funafuti (Tuvalu’s capital) never to return. In 1943, during World War II, Tuvalu was selected as an operations base for allied forces battling the Japanese in the Pacific – the northern end of Funafuti being mined for its aggregate to build the military airstrip.
Due to its low elevation ( maximum 15ft above sea level), Tuvalu’s small, scattered group of atolls have extremely poor soils for agriculture and its porous nature has made it’s water lens particularly susceptible to salt water intrusion and contamination through poor coastal management. Leaking septic tanks and effluent runoff from a menagerie of piggeries is poisoning their only permanent water supply and killing the surrounding reefs of Tuvalu’s lagoon. Since subsistence farming and fishing remain the primary economic activities outside of foreign aid, the scarcity of fresh water and the need of Tuvaluan fishermen to travel further afield for there catch has made water management a major priority of the present day government.
According to The South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), Tuvalu, due to its level of population growth and maximum elevation above sea level makes it vulnerable to climate change and ocean level rise. SOPAC ranks the country as ‘extremely vulnerable’ using the Environmental Vulnerability Index.
