Both too much, and now too little of it!
Funafuti, capital of the South Pacfic island archipelego nation of Tuvalu, is bereft of water due to El Nino. An odd predicament, as this country is one on the danger list from rising seas resulting from changing climate.
Later rising tides "threaten to overwhelm their homes and poison supplies of freshwater, making their islands uninhabitable" reports the BBC of the Tuvaluans.
The immediate issue also involves water, but of the fresh variety, supplies of which are running out in certain areas NOW.
Can anything be done? New Zealanders have flown a couple of desalination units there plus some immediate water supplies, but far more help is required.
Could the neighbouring Australians, the French who possess New Caledonia, close by Indonesians or the Americans who manage American Samoa not also come to Tuvalu's aid?
Distances from Funafuti to:
- Pago Pago, American Samoa 1,271 km
- Nouméa, New Caledonia 2,065 km
- Brisbane, Australia 3,465 km
- Auckland, New Zealand 3,182 km
- Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia 7,031 km
- Jakarta, Java, Indonesia 8,011 km
And why on earth was this left so late? There are some 5,000 inhabitants of Funafuti, and a total of 11,000 in Tuvalu. What exactly was the international community expecting these islanders to do? Isn't this exactly the sort of circumstance where an international aid budget kicks in? Where a country, despite any amount of human effort and endurance, can't by itself solve an issue. Why is so much of the world's aid seemingly dependent on the level of strategic significance of the recipient? Maybe Tuvalu is off that type of map.
A proper desalination installation has to be constructed and, before that's operational, emergency water supplies and portable desalination units must be airlifted.
Or am I just being hopeful?
Or am I just being hopeful?
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