TeaTwo years ago fisherman Siri James lived in a small village near Pariva Beach, on the south coast of Papua New Guinea. But as the tide continued to rise, James was forced to move ashore.
“It is not easy to travel inland, I was born and brought up on the seashore, I am a fisherman. I know the tides and the flow of currents, I know when it’s going to be windy and when it’s going to rain – but now I don’t understand why everything is changing,” says James, who is in his 40s. Are.
He says the tide “seems to be rising every day”.
“I heard them saying it’s global warming. I skipped school and ran away to go fishing, so now I don’t know what global warming is, but it doesn’t rain when it should, the winds have changed,” says James.
“Maybe we’ve angered the sea gods, I don’t know, but now I have to move my family inland,” he says.
Pariwa Beach is part of Kerema in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. In that area, rising sea levels and sand erosion have forced about 40,000 people to move inland over the past decade, a local councilor says, in what a leading climate change activist described as a “humanitarian crisis”. We do.
Kerema councilor Mai Trevor says that 80,000 people used to live in the local area, however, since 2015, about half the population has moved inland due to high tides and sand erosion. Trevor says residents first started fleeing in 2015, but the number of people leaving has increased over the past four years.
Along with fishing, many people in the province earn a living from coconut and betel nut cultivation. In recent years, residents say tides have been rising and weather patterns have changed, making it harder to grow crops or fish in the oceans and affecting their livelihoods.
“Many people are moving to the mountain tops in Kerema town, while those who have land [further inland in nearby] Murua has gone there,” says Trevor.
She adds, “To find a way to deal with this we need a proper census of the population of the area, all the land is traditionally owned, so the authorities cannot simply move people.” Papua New Guinea is in the process of conducting its first census in many years, which experts say could reveal the Pacific country’s population to be much higher than the current estimate of about 10 million people.
Leading Papua New Guinea climate change activist Duncan Gaby also estimates that thousands of people have been displaced from the area around Pariwa Beach.
“Sand erosion on Pariwa beach [is] displacing 30,000 to 40,000 people, [it is] A humanitarian crisis that highlights PNG’s vulnerability to climate change,” says Gabby.
He warned that a controversial proposal to begin sand mining in the western part of the Gulf province is fueling fears the situation will worsen and argued that authorities must take action to help communities.
‘Nothing is being done’
Kerry Anne Henry lives in a village of about 500 people near Pariva Beach. She says people living in her village have started migrating inland because of rising seas and the threat of sand erosion.
“Some people have land on top of the mountains and have started going there,” she says.
“Those who don’t have land anywhere else are stranded on the coast and watching the sand slowly shift and the tide come in. Our coconuts and betel nuts are being washed away into the sea,” says the 36-year-old man. “
“The authorities have turned a blind eye to the situation and yet nothing is being done,” she says.
Kereama Airport is a few kilometers from Henry’s family home. The tides now reach closer to the airport than before, and recently washed away the airport’s back fence.
Minister of Environment, Conservation and Climate Change, Simon Kilepa, says rising sea levels and the impact on communities is a worrying issue that underlines the vulnerabilities faced by coastal communities across the country.
Kilepa says the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) is “working with various government departments and partners to best address this issue”.
CCDA’s acting managing director, Debra Sungi, says the agency is “deeply concerned about the challenges posed by rising sea levels”, which have already affected the livelihoods, homes and cultural heritage of thousands of Papua New Guineans.
She says the agency is working on “resilience-building measures to mitigate these impacts” and conducting vulnerability assessments in affected provinces, including the Gulf, to decide on the allocation of resources.
“We are committed to ensuring that no one is left behind as we navigate these unprecedented challenges,” she says.
Still, Gaby says not enough is being done to support communities. They also fear the impact of a plan being considered by authorities to begin sand mining in Orokolo Bay on the western edge of the province.
“What is disappointing is that proposed sand mining projects in Orokolo Bay, in the same area where people are being displaced, threaten to worsen the crisis,” says Gabi.
He further said, “Our government should have prioritized climate adaptation and disaster preparedness long ago.”