Pacific Islands Environment Outlook - UNEP

WATER AND FOOD SECURITY
51
addressing this in the planning and infrastructure
standards of its public housing sector; Kiribati is working
on an urban management plan for South Tarawa; the
Marshall Islands are introducing a Majuro water supply
and sanitation project; and Vanuatu is developing an
urban growth management strategy in the areas of water
supply, environmental sanitation, environmental health
and urban expansion.
As population pressures grow, the region will see an
increase in the problems of environmental health, as
illustrated below in the discussion on safe drinking water.
Malnutrition and disease will affect populations to a
much higher degree. As in other parts of the developing
world, serious poverty will create obstacles to sound
environmental practices.
These patterns will reinforce the effects of internal
migration, and the progressive weakening of traditional
controls on resource management. All migrants take
something, leave something and pick up something.
Migration patterns in the region, as elsewhere in the
world, are driven by the wish to find greater
opportunities – usually in terms of employment and cash
income, but also in areas such as education and access to
entertainment/recreation, or spectator sport.
Water and food security
Security of access to clean, fresh water and adequate
nutrition is fundamental to both survival and
development. In the Pacific, as noted in Chapter One,
there are increasing grounds for concern that shortages
will occur and that human health will be adversely
affected. At the Regional Consultation, for example,
water issues were raised by Guam, Tuvalu and
American Samoa, while Fiji referred to the high demand
from the tourist industry – a factor that in a dry year
exacerbates supply problems for the local population. In
the case of water, supply problems arose in several
countries and territories during the extreme El Niño
event of 1997–98. This had serious effects on food
supply for subsistence communities, for example in
PNG, where there was widespread crop failure.
Some problems could be alleviated through
investment in improved storage and distribution systems.
In most countries, year-round rainfall could meet human
demand if adequate amounts could be stored in
reservoirs or tanks at the village level. Conservation
measures would still be needed, together with proper
treatment to ensure the availability of potable water.
Rising living standards can lead to higher consumer
demand, which needs to be matched with public
awareness campaigns, possibly combined in due course
with metering arrangements. Assistance will be needed
to help countries place the supply of clean water on a
sustainable basis.
In other countries, particularly smaller islands and
atoll groups, the crisis of water security is more serious
and cannot be handled through improved storage alone.
The freshwater lens (which stores the small amount of
rainwater that drains from the surface of an atoll) is not
sustainable if too much is taken for human use. Some
populations may need to install desalination systems,
which are expensive to operate but which could draw on
the daytime availability of solar or other forms of
renewable energy. The main requirement will be to plan
such investments well in advance, before the shortage of
fresh water reaches crisis point.
Food security as an issue is relatively new for Pacific
populations, although it has always arisen in the wake of
natural disasters. Traditionally, it has not been an area of
concern for public policy, but this is changing as the
result of a number of factors. The link with extreme
weather conditions has been mentioned above, as has the
impact of rising populations. Over-exploitation of coastal
fisheries is another significant factor in most countries of
the region (SPREP 1997a).
It may become more difficult in future to ensure
that Pacific island populations have the basic ‘cushion’
needed when there are fluctuations in food supply, for
climatic or other reasons. With a higher proportion of
the population living in urban areas, there will be less
capacity to produce subsistence crops. Financing may
be needed for new initiatives in food production. One
example is investment in fishing boats capable of
winning a share of the oceanic tuna resource.
There is an important link between the issues of food
and water security and the preservation of biodiversity,
as well as the wider question of reducing the high levels
of vulnerability in the region. It is well known, for
example, that the protection of mangrove areas will
produce benefits through the marine food chain. If
degradation of other habitats can be reversed, similar
benefits will be available. (In New Zealand, for example,
recreational and commercial fishermen have come round
to supporting the establishment of further marine
reserves, on the grounds that it will aid the recovery of
fish populations in neighbouring zones.) Inland, the
protection of streams and rivers from run-off is attainable
through planting programmes, which can also be planned
to provide food for threatened birdlife.