DRR Mission Report Tuvalu March, 2016 Draft Final Report DRR Mission Sjef IJzermans (Team Leader) Tjitte Nauta (ICZM specialist) Document title DRR Mission Report Tuvalu Document short title DRR Mission report Tuvalu Status Draft Final Report DRR Mission Date March 2016 (Photo NSAP) 1 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The DRR team worked in close cooperation with the Office of the Prime Minister. The team thanks Foreign Minister Taukelina Finikaso and his staff Ms Manaema Saitala, Senior Advisor Asia & Europe Division, and Ms Marilyn Simmons, Senior Advisor Pacific Affairs Division, for their support and arrangements to meet the various government institutions and other agencies. The mission is also grateful for the time that all persons listed in Annex B spent with us to discuss the issues covered in this report. The mission spent relatively short time in Tuvalu to fully capture the complexity / magnitude of the problems, hence this report is mainly a brief compilation report of available information collated during the mission. By copying and reviewing parts of existing studies (among others the many valuable SPC / SOPAC studies, the NAPA project and Australian Aid Climate Change adaptation and the Tuvalu Tropical Cyclone Pam Recovery: Vulnerability Reduction Plan), the mission was able to understand and describe the system in order to arrive at some recommendations on how to proceed. 2 SUMMARY General On September 6th 2015 a request of His Excellency Enele Sopoaga, the Prime Minister of Tuvalu for support of the DRR-Team on coastal protection was sent by email to Mr Sjef IJzermans, the Dutch Special Envoy for Pacific SIDS (Annex 1). The email was sent after a brief meeting at the Pacific Island Development Forum PIDF in Suva, in September 2015, between the Prime Minister Sopoaga, Netherlands Ambassador to Tuvalu Rob Zaagman and Special Envoy Sjef IJzermans. On January 6, 2016, after an exchange of e-mails, Ambassador Zaagman (Wellington) responded in the form of a proposal for a mission to be led by Special Envoy Sjef IJzermans with one or two technical experts in the areas of coastal protection and a dredging specialist to visit Tuvalu in the first week of February 2016. Parties agreed accordingly and the mission of Sjef IJzermans and Tjitte Nauta of Research Institute Deltares was fielded between 2 and 9 February, 2016. The mission was made possible through the Disaster Risk Reduction Facility (DRR) through which the Netherlands government makes available expertise in the field of water management. The team had a stopover in Fiji where the offices of UNDP, SPC and EU were visited prior to the stay in Tuvalu. Tuvalu is a low-lying group of eight atolls and reef ridges just south of the equator and just west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu consists of nine small islands scattered over 500,000 km2 of the western Pacific. The islands include Niulakita, Nukulaelae, Funafuti, Nukufetau, Vaitupu, Nui, Niutao, Nanumaga and Nanumea. The total land area is only 27 km2 and all of the islands are less than five meters above sea level (Tuvalu NBSAP 2009). The atolls islands are split up in individual islands, sometimes connected by reefs, sometimes divided by openings enabling large sea ships to enter the lagoon. The capital is located on the island Fongofale, part of the main atoll Fanufuti. On this island some 6,000 of the approximately 11,000 inhabitants of Tuvalu are living. The population on Funafuti has recently increased because of migration from the outer islands. The mission took place within a year after typhoon Pam had caused havoc in the region and a storm surge and king tides combined with high waves had inflicted serious damage to Tuvalu where every piece of its long stretched land borders the sea. Domestic and agriculture water supply were topics that were only briefly examined during the mission. Drinking water supply in the capital island is mainly realized through harvested rainwater, as average rainfall exceeds 3 meters annually and is rather evenly spread throughout the year and over the years. Roof catchments provide a good base for water supply throughout most of the year. However, dry years do occur, when water provided by the government is rationed and many people have to resort to drinking water produced by a few desalinization plants with a total capacity of 60 m3 per day. Tuvalu is well aware of the complexity of its situation and has managed to produce many documents that articulate well the status and the possible way forward. Furthermore regional institutions like SPC (now also including SOPAC), ADB, World Bank and several bilateral donors like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan are providing substantial support, both in terms of technical finesse and volume of assistance. The ‘Vulnerability Reduction Plan’ provides a comprehensive overview of the status quo, the strategies adopted and the actions anticipated. Many technical papers do exist which were studied and used when formulating the missions report and advise. 3 Coastal management and development Regarding coastal management, the mission concentrated on the populated Funafuti as human influence on the coast of this island is considerable and erosion affects many people’s security. Also, on coastal dynamics some well written reports (often with involvement of SPC/SOPAC), are available and were studied by the mission to obtain a detailed picture of the situation in Tuvalu. For very small reef islands nations like Tuvalu, it is extremely important to maintain a healthy reef ecosystem to avoid issues of eutrophication of the lagoon, overgrowth of coral reefs by algae, loss of fishing grounds, and contamination of the freshwater lens. Even so, Tuvalu is threatened by sea-level rise due to global warming, which pollutes the little-available soil and freshwater supply with saltwater intrusion. King tides and storms further add to the saltwater load on the fragile terrestrial ecosystem. The main issues to address, as to coastal management and preservation of the coastal reefs, are: • The high vulnerability of the low lying atoll to coastal flooding; • Coastal erosion and ad hoc implementation of coastal protection measures without overseeing the consequences; • Increased demand for shelter and housing and need for good planning and urban development; • Increasing environmental degradation caused by waste and wastewater disposal. This mission mainly focused on climate change and human interruptions and their impact on the shoreline. For the period to 2100, the latest global climate model (GCM) projections and climate science findings for Tuvalu indicate: • El Niño and La Niña events will continue to occur in the future (very high confidence), but there is little consensus on whether these events will change in intensity or frequency; • Ocean acidification is expected to continue (very high confidence) and the risk of coral bleaching will increase in the future (very high confidence); • Sea level will continue to rise (very high confidence); and • Wave height is projected to decrease in December–March (low confidence), waves may be more directed from the South in October (low confidence). The high vulnerability to rising waters and other climate change effects may require large scale intervention for islands like Funafuti. In this mission report it is advocated to adopt more sustainable shoreline management practices and at the same time investigate the feasibility for e.g. land reclamation to develop the necessary land and water. The main conclusion of the mission was that Tuvalu has undertaken very useful steps over the last year by refilling the ‘Borrow Pits’ dug in World War II, with the help of the New Zealand Government, and used the presence of the dredging contractor for these works to realize a beach nourishment in front of the Government Building and the only hotel on the island. The mission advises to engage in further coastal morphological studies for the entire country to better predict erosion / sedimentation processes and on the way forward on how to deal with dynamic coastlines. The mission also recommends that Netherlands expertise is made available to realize two projects that are at present being formulated with coastal defence as a central theme: 1. Provide support to UNDP’s green climate fund (GCF) submissions. UNDP, through Dr. Yusuke Taishi, discussed possible support from The Netherlands in costly GCF preparations, co-financing on tenders regarding proposed GCF activities for Tuvalu (focusing on resilient coastal management, reduction of vulnerability of key coastal infrastructure and development of sustainable financing mechanisms for long term adaptation efforts) and/or capacity building programs related to coastal management. 2. Provide support to the Coalition of Atoll Nations on Climate Change with their “Pacific Rising” plan for the coalition of 5 atoll nations (Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, 4 Tokelau and Tuvalu: http://pacificrising.org/coalition-low-lying-atoll-nations). The plan (as announced during COP21 in Paris) is global in its scope of participation needed to save the people of these low-lying nations from rising sea levels caused by climate change in order to stop a refugee crisis and save the lives and cultures of their people. Our mission would like to recommend that the island shoreline dynamics should be maintained where possible. Local infrastructure (seawalls, groynes, etc.) may locally protect important areas, but will often have less beneficial impacts on adjacent areas. In case of the development of such protective structures it is advocated to carry out a coastal morpho-dynamic study first. In addition to the natural threats like SLR we believe that anthropogenic threats need to be addressed adequately as they relate to the quality of the reefs that have formed and protected these atolls over time (i.e. emphasis should be on addressing the impacts of coastal structures, pollution and overfishing). For very small reef islands nations like Tuvalu, it is extremely important to maintain a healthy reef ecosystem to avoid issues of eutrophication of the lagoon, overgrowth of coral reefs by algae, loss of fishing grounds, and contamination of the freshwater lens.