Engineers check out feasibility of building up Kiribati

Transcript

Engineers from The Netherlands have been in Kiribati checking out the feasibility of building up parts of the atolls to help deal with rising seas.

The President of Kiribati Anote Tong says a team from the United Arab Emirates is also involved with the plan and has just been in his country.

Mr Tong says the project which is just in the feasibility stage is one of a number of what he calls creative solutions to the effects of climate change which could help all small island countries in the region.

He told Sally Round about the plan.

ANOTE TONG: We had been working with a number of potential partners. I had been talking to the Koreans, they had visited, they looked at a number of options for assisting us including building up the islands. The UAE is a partner we began talking to last year, at the end of last year I met the minister for foreign affairs in New York and she promised me she would send people by the beginning of January this year, she has done that. They have got their people, the people from UAE were more government, potential donors, and there were also engineers from The Netherlands. They were the people that actually built the islands in the UAE so we are trying to get their support and what they can do. Because the question I put out is what kind of technical solutions can be designed that will be sustainable in order to ensure the islands will be able to remain beyond the storms.

SALLY ROUND: Have they indicated so far? Do you have any information as to whether this would be feasible?

AT: It is feasible, there is no question about that. It is the question of whether the resources would be available to do it, because technically I believe anything is possible. The question is would there be enough resources to do it.

SR: Did they say how much this would cost?

AT: It would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars but again it's a factor of how large the island is that is being rebuilt. I know the NZ government did one in Tuvalu but not on the same scale - it cost more than 10 million NZ dollars so it's not something that is beyond possibilities.

SR: And are we talking about extending land or building up land?

AT: Building up land because the story is the land that is there will not be able to withstand the rising tides and storms. So it's not about extending, because you need to build it up to stay out of the water into the future.

SR: And using materials that are already there?

AT: Materials will most probably come from the lagoon, as did in Tuvalu. So it has been done. All of this is part of the pilot programmes to test what is sustainable, what are credible, sustainable solutions available. The idea is once it is done in Kiribati it will provide a model to improve or replicate in other small island countries.

SR: Any idea of timeframes at this point?

AT: Well I would like to think that we would be looking within the year, because it is something that has been on the table for quite some time. But I think what happened in Paris was that a certain extent it has given it a bit more of push. And I believe a number of countries might be interested because it is groundbreaking - everybody wants to be a part of what is interesting, what is moral, what is right. I think it's time that there is something like this done, not for a military purpose but for people, people who are trying to survive in the face of the threat that is created by humans.

SR: Another solution you have in mind is the Pacific Rising foundation you were talking about.

AT: The Pacific Rising is actually not another, it is part of the process. Pacific Rising is a combination of many things - something like what was the Marshall Plan. So it entails generating financing, the responses, and from those responses defining how resources are to be applied in terms of providing climate resilience and adaptation for vulnerable countries. We are working together as a coalition to try and do this. Because our voice is better heard when we are talking the same thing. We don't want to be raising different issues.

SR: So this is a group of Pacific Islands together?

AT: Yes, initially we have started off as a small grouping as the most vulnerable. Because we are definitely running out of time. There are those communities that have already run out of time that have to leave their homes and that is happening very fast.

SR: And that's getting money from private individuals as well as governments?

AT: That's right. At the moment we have never bothered to address our challenges to the private sector but they do have a lot of funds. Not only that, they don't have the bureaucracy that we have to deal with. One of the biggest problems that we are facing with the Green Climate Fund, no matter how many billions of dollars, we cannot get to it - it's no use. We don't even have accreditation to access the funding. We have to go through another agency in order to access the funding. Those countries who need it the most are not getting the funding.

SR: So this is your own solution to not being able to access those international funds?

AT: Yes, because we want to cover all possibilities.

SR: How far along is this foundation?

AT: We are in the process of registering it because it has to be registered. And we have to agree among ourselves how we put people on it, on the board and whatnot. Because it has to be a well structured organisation which will provide credibility and confidence to those people that might be willing to contribute funding. The funding would then be channeled to support the programmes that each of the countries put together.