Don't blame La Nina, blame big gas emitters causing climate change

I hear a lot about La Nina being the cause of less rain for the small islands like Tuvalu. A few weeks ago, the country was declared a state of emergency as it experienced water shortage due to less rain. Why blame it on La Nina, this is all because of the industrialised countries and what they producing to make their life better at the expense of the life of the people in small island nations like Tuvalu. As Tuvaluans who were born and bred in Tuvalu, you should know better than this, this is not La Nina. Tuvalu  have had La Nina every now and then but you haven't come to that worse. I say blame it on climate change. It may have made the La Nina situation worse and prolonged it and that's why there were no clouds and no rains. These countries also caused climate change resulting in  sea levels rise so that freshwater tastes more salty now than before. Now the people of Tuvalu could not depend on fresh groundwater at such times because freshwater has become too salty. The Tuvaluans have animals that they feed for food. These fresh groundwater is not even fit for the animals because of salty tang. It is climate change and no other.
Climate Change had been the most critical issue that our leaders have fought for in the global arena because this is what climate change is doing to the small island nation of Tuvalu, while the bigger countries fare better, the small islands such as Tuvalu are taking the full brunt of it, sea level rise, strong winds at unusual times, salt water intrusion to traditional plantations, and you name it. Now Tuvalu is getting more and more droughts these days.
I remember in my young days, I've never come across a drought, in those days 30 years ago, we refer to a drought a very hot and sunny day because we don't have weeks or months without rain. Rain comes most of the time in a week that we sometimes say "Oh rain, please come back another day, we were tired of having rains but now there are more days without rain than rainy days. Tuvaluan Prime Minister Willy Telavi had told the United Nations Assembly that Tuvalu will not survive without foreign Aid. That was a very courageous talk because those big countries with the biggest gas emitters should help Tuvalu now since it was their technology and carbons that put the small nations in such pitiful positions. So don't think this is  because of La Nina, it is all because of climate change. I'm sure that a lot of Tuvaluans now are thinking of leaving the country just because of what recently happened and of course why shouldn't they think of leaving their precious home.  Bigger countries must open their doors and allow these people find a place to live in their midst because after all it was their greed who made these Tuvaluans leave their peaceful and precious home country.

can you drink saltwater?

I see a lot of comments suggesting freshwater for Tuvaluans to help cope with times of drought or no rain.Have these people seen what the islands of Tuvalu are like in size?

Tuvalu is an island group of 8 atolls (coral islands consisting of a reef surrounding a lagoon) and 4 islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It is located midway between Australia and Hawaii. The island chain stretches some 676 kilometers (420 miles) from the southern island of Niulakita to the northern-most island of Nanumea and covers 757,000 square kilometers (292,278 square miles) of ocean, but it has a total land area of only 26 square kilometers (10 square miles), including 24 kilometers (15 miles) of coastline. Tuvalu's land area is one-tenth the size of the city of Washington, D.C., making it one of the smallest nations in the world. Funafuti, the capital and largest city, is located on the islet of Fongafale in the Funafuti Atoll. The nation's largest island is Vaitupu at 4.9 square kilometers (1.89 square miles) and the smallest is Niulakita at 0.41 square kilometers (0.16 square miles). All of Tuvalu is less than 4.5 meters (15 feet) above sea-level. Due to environmental factors such as rising ocean levels and soil erosion.
 Read more: Tuvalu - Location and size, Population, Industry, Dependencies, Capital:, Monetary unit: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Tuvalu.html#ixzz1cCPwOnpo

Meanwhile, a few of the islands do not have wells, while others only have one or two wells  that the people can get the water from and these wells are small and couldn't possibly cater for the need of water for a population on an island. Maybe these people are suggestions underlying their comments is that more wells need to be dug. If more wells are dug on these tiny islands, it will greatly damage their natural enviroment and these small islands will just be full of holes(wells) and there will not be insufficient space for the future generations of Tuvalu to build their homes.
Most importantly these outsiders have to think of the impacts of climate change before making such comments. In the recent years, Tuvaluans are eating less and less of their traditional food , 'the pulaka' or giant taro because most the plants died due to salt water intrusion into the freshwater that these plants depend on to live. In the past years, the meat of these 'pulaka' is so tasty and rich just like the taro in Fiji, but now if you pull out a pulaka, the meat is not as good as in the past years. This is evident enought of the rising sea level. The point that i'm trying to emphasise here here is: if the plants are facing serious problems of salty water fusion with the freshwater that they grow in, how can the people of Tuvalu today use the freshwater. The freshwater are so salty and you can't use it for washing  clothes and you can't use to bath nor for animals consumption.
And then there is water contamination on the other hand. The ground water in Tuvalu is contaminated and will only create more health problems for the people if consumed.
I believe that donors should help by providing free tanks and improving roofs and gutters free of charge for the Tuvaluans.

Moretanks

Water is life Water is life It's back again, the second drought for Tuvalu. And this time it was by far the worst ever experienced by the small island nation of Tuvalu. "The situation is bad," said Pusinelli Laafai, Tuvalu's permanent secretary of home affairs. "It's really bad."To survive, islanders will need to get better about conserving the water they have and improve the rooftop rain catchment systems on which most households rely, Fry said.Should it be islanders , what about the poor who could not afford to build another tank then what was built under a project. I think it is not up to islanders but leaders, the must have learnt the lesson from the first serious drought and built more watercatchments or a reservoir of some sort to collect as much water during the rain season and store for such times. I used to see rain water pouring down from heaven onto the airfield and used to think what a waste of water. Government should try and think of an idea that will save-store more water for the people for times like this.When it comes to water security the poorest are vulnerable because they can’t afford to buy additional tanks. Through the EU-project all households on Funafuti get one tank each for free. The criteria for getting a tank however, is that the household has to ensure a good roof and a platform for the tank to stand on. Can the poor even afford to buy cement to make the platform for the tank, What about sand?? The Funafuti Kaupule( Town Council) has also imposed bans on the removal of  sand from the beach due to sea level rise, while those who want sand have to pay the Town council as well as a truck to carry the sand.Why shouldn't the Water tank project covers everything if the reason behind the project is for all people to have extra water tanks?? Why doesn't it continue and instead of giving one huge tank per household why not more, three or four? I think the solution for Tuvalu sater problem is tfor Wate tank projects to continue  assist families get more tanks, build more bigger water cysterns beside the big halls like communities , churches, what about the uninhabited areas on each island, why not the donors build huge water storage there?? Donors, think abou it? Tuvalu used to have lots of rains and those are the times that water could be stored. So what the islanders need is more water storage at no cost to the islanders.

draft

20/10/2011

by belleis

Delete