Islands Business - Environment: PACIFIC'S FIRST CLIMATE CHANGE REFUGEES?

Canada, SPREP relocate Tegua victims

Samisoni Pareti
The plight of a small community in Vanuatu was paraded at a recent international environment conference in Scandinavia as the Pacific's first climate change refugees.

From Tegua to Lirak... villagers had to be relocated due to king tides and aggressive seas.

Following years of being exposed to the wrath of storm surges, king tides and aggressive seas, the tiny and remote settlement of Tegua, in Vanuatu's northernmost province of Torba, had to be relocated to higher grounds some 15 metres further inland.

The relocation was a joint exercise between relevant government departments of Vanuatu and the Apia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP), with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) providing funding.

“Initial discussions on the relocation started way back in 2003 when a vulnerability and adaptation assessment was carried out for Tegua,” explains Taito Nakalevu, SPREP's climate change adaptation officer.

“It was noted that the community was already facing coastal flooding problems.”

The coastal erosion placed on Tegua settlers various challenges. Beach vegetation, coconut palms mainly, were either felled due to a shrinking coastline or left growing in the sea literally.
Houses built so close to the coast had to be torn down and relocated.

Assessment by SPREP shows erosion rates around the village had 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. Part of the problem a CIDA report later observed was the topography of the coastline.

“It is vulnerable to storm surges, tidal waves due to its very low elevation and has suffered from frequent inundation and coastal erosion of two to three metres per annum,” the CIDA report said.

“The village is five metres from the high water mark and any strong south easterly during high tides will generate waves that will overtop the one-metre coral stands that act as a barrier and floods the whole village and dwellings.

“The most recent flooding was in July 26-28, last year.”

Constant flooding affected the architecture in Tegua. Sleeping houses are built on foundations of piled limestone rocks, while fireplaces in kitchens are built on limestone rocks. Flooding also pose as a health risk.

Explains Nakalevu: “Increase in water-borne diseases which include malaria and other skin diseases are a direct result of inundation or stagnant water.

“Due to sea level rise or plate tectonics (subduction), the underground water is very close to the surface. This does not allow the water to subside easily during any flooding, thus providing an environment conducive for rapid multiplication of water-borne diseases.”

Since the assessment on the impact of coastal erosion and flooding, discussions began with the chief and people of Tegua for their relocation further inland. The settlers' main concern, said Nakalevu, was their source of freshwater as some of these were collected from freshwater springs at low tides.

This concern was resolved when CIDA paid for the purchase and installation of six water tanks, each able to store 6000 litres of water.

CIDA also paid for roofing iron sheets to collect water for the tanks, and all these were installed at the new village site, which the villagers have named Lirak.

“All the houses had to be torn down and rebuilt at the new site,” said Nakalevu.

“The chief was the first to rebuild his house at the new site and villagers followed suite.”

“Most of the houses in Tegua are made of thatched materials.

“Some 15 houses had to be relocated which include the church.”

Villagers themselves carried out the relocation, although workers from government's hydrology section installed the water tanks.

With the relocation completed last August, the case of the Tegua climate change refugees was highlighted at a meeting in Norway of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Said UNEP's executive director, Dr Klaus Toepfer: “The peoples of the Arctic 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 way of life.

“The melting and receding of sea ice and the rising sea level and storms surges are the first manifestations of the big changes underway which eventually will touch everyone on the planet.”

Added Nakalevu: “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.”

For the people of Tegua, they will be lucky if a cargo boat calls on them twice a year.

But their isolation does not provide immunity from the effects of climate change nor hide them from the attention of concerned foreign donors, regional experts and Port Vila-based government departments who are keen to help and lend a hand in turning the tide against climate change.