Case study 2; South Tarawa

South Tarawa Micronesia

Image above showing pollution in South Tarawa taken from ; 

Mathiesen, K. (2015). The Pacific islands losing a way of life to climate change – in pictures. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2015/mar/17/pacific-islands-losing-way-of-life-to-climate-change-in-pictures [Accessed 6 May 2015].

A population density of 46,000 which is 2,600 people per every square meter, this compared to 265 in the United Kingdom (World Bank, 2015) is a high population density.

Islands rely on shallow groundwater, rainwater tanks and desalination for water (Moglia et al, 2008).

Problems that have been encountered in water management are :

• Limited human resources 
• Isolation
• System Complexity (traditional views of rural population not supporting new strategies)

Lack of water on the island means lack of water for business and agriculture.  Meaning only 20% of the population are in employment (Moglia et al, 2008). 

Agriculture on atolls can also cause problems;

Tongatapu, the main island in the kingdom of Tonga has high rainfall but no freshwater resources. High rainfall and fast absorption due to soil type means it can sustain some agriculture. This lead to an influx of squash production and also increased use of fertilisers. The increase in fertilisers polluted the groundwater causing mass eutrophication which was added to by leaking septic tanks (Velde et al, 2007). Lack of water for households has had an impact on child mortality and health (Moglia et al, 2008).

The potential for water collection on this island is great but there is a lack of households with facilities. Property rights have caused conflicts when water reserves have been planned on private land (Perrez, 2003).

One traditional form of water management is 'taro pits' these are holes dug in the land with layers of plants and organic mulch onto forming humidity pockets (Bridges, Mclatchy, 2009).

'Taro pit' traditional agriculture in South Tarawa Micronesia. Taken from;

 Spc.int, (2015). [online] Available at: http://www.spc.int/lrd/cepactacc/swamptaro.php [Accessed 6 May 2015].

References:

Perez, Pascal, et al. (2003) ”AtollScape: Simulating Freshwater Management in Pacific atolls, Spatial processes and time dependence issues." Proc. of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation, MODSIM. Vol. 4.

Bridges, K. and McClatchey, W. (2009). Living on the margin: Ethnoecological insights from Marshall Islanders at Rongelap atoll. Global Environmental Change, 19(2), pp.140-146.

Data.worldbank.org, (2015). Population density (people per sq. km of land area) | Data | Table. [online] Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Moglia, M., Perez, P. and Burn, S. (2008). Water troubles in a Pacific atoll town. Water Policy, 10(6), p.613.