Climate Change Resilience
Adapting to climate change is a community affair, as demonstrated recently in Hihifo district in Tonga when the local rugby club pitched in to help. The men were called upon to assist with moving three giant water tanks, which are a measure to improve water supply brought in by the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project.
“The problem was the huge size of the tanks – they are seven metres in diameter and nearly two metres tall,” explained Mr Paula Taufa, PACC national coordinator. “We realised they were too big to move by vehicle to their installation site. It could have been a real problem if it hadn’t been for the helping hands of the players.” Forty club members carried the tanks for over 300 metres, where bases had been fitted and were waiting to receive them.
The Tonga PACC project is addressing water shortages that are affecting many villages in the Hihifo region, and which are set to worsen with climate change. “Climate models predict changing and erratic rainfall in the future,“ said Mr Taufa. The project is designed to increase the resilience of communities in the face of these changes, by upgrading water systems and infrastructure. As well as the three 45,000 litre tanks, the project has installed a 22,500 litre overhead tank and 30 individual household tanks that each hold 10,000 litres.
According to the district officer of the Western (Hihifo) district, Mr Sione Manumanu, the 30 household tanks were very gratefully received in six villages. “The selected recipients never had a water tank at their homes. Some of them have too many people living in one house, so there’s a high demand for water, while others live far away from the main (village) water pumps and there was no water tank located near their homes to support them when they’re in need of water,” said Mr Manumanu.
The Tonga project is one of 14 projects that are demonstrating practical adaptation measures in 14 Pacific island countries and territories. The projects aim to reduce vulnerability of communities to climate change, with focus on three key climate-sensitive sectors: coastal zone management, food production and food security, and water resources management.
The PACC programme is funded by the Global Environment Facility and the Australian Government with support from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Climate Change Capacity Development (C3D+). The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is the implementing partner, and the United Nations Development Programme acts as implementing agency.