Combating rising rivers
Isoa Koroiwaqa from Suva, Fiji Islands (South Pacific), relates his observations regarding changes in the local environment, their impacts on community life and the coping strategies that his community is trying to set into place.
Bula,
I am from the Fiji islands in the South Pacific. My village sits near an estuary and we have experienced much flooding over the years. Major flooding occurred in 1972, 1987, 1989, 1992 and 1998. The most recent was in 2004, when we had to be evacuated. Over the past 10 years, about 18 families have built their homes away from the village as they fear flooding. But most of the people would rather stay put. Along the river banks, because they fear flooding, people have stopped planting root crops and vegetables.
We are experiencing a dangerous rise in sediments along the river. We suspect that this is due to climate change, because no logging is taking place in the water catchment area, and some pig hunters have seen erosion and mud slides in some sections of the forest, in particular along the streams that feed the big river. This is affecting over 500 people from five villages. Four of these communities are located along the upper banks of the river. For the past five years, they can no longer fish beside their village or along the river as sediment has covered the fishing spots. Now they have to walk five kilometres to the sea to fish and that means leaving home in the morning and returning at dusk. The rise in sediment has also pushed gravel materials into a section of my village's mangrove swamp. Now we are not able to harvest crabs as our fingers get hurt and bruised.
The gravel is spreading and we have started to plant selected mangrove species and other plants with the hope that when they grow big, their root systems will block the gravel from entering the mangrove fisheries. We are also planning to plant vertiva grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) and other erosion-preventing plants to try and save our river banks from more erosion. We are building a small nursery for these plants, which would provide the supply we need to protect our river banks. We are trying this out, but if there is any advice from you, please do forward it, we would appreciate it.
Do you have advice for Isoa, or are you trying to cope with climate change impacts? Write to us at peoples@climatefrontlines.org and share your experiences.
