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Paradise Lost?

By Elisabeth Easter, Pulp Magazine (October 2005)

The South Pacific, the very thought conjures up images of pristine atolls, tropical reefs bursting with aquatic life and balmy beach living - an area of unspoilt beauty.

And don’t get me started on the surf breaks – from Samoa’s mighty reefs to Fiji’s gentler (sometimes at least) beach breaks - the islands of the Pacific have something for everyone.

Covering over 600,000 sq km, more than 98% of the area is ocean, while the remaining 2% consists of around 7500 islands; only 500 of those islands are inhabited and, as for the population, it sits somewhere around 8 million, or just 0.1%of the world’s total population.

Yes indeed, the Pacific region is a palm-fringed and mostly, sparsely populated paradise boasting some of the world’s most outstanding travel destinations – however, the area cannot stay idyllic forever, not unless dramatic action is taken immediately.

Modern Times

In the space of just a few generations, the people of the Pacific have moved from subsistence living to a much more cash propelled economy and, while in some ways this is a positive progression, for many communities it also means having to deal with the demands and consequences of a consumer oriented culture.

Certainly, modernisation is often beneficial - not to mention unavoidable – but it still makes for a complicated shift when there are virtually no systems in place to manage waste or protect limited natural resources from pollution or exploitation.

And that’s where SPREP steps in.

Who?

SPREP (the Pacific Regional Environment Programme) is an aid agency was established in the 1980s to supervise the overall welfare of the Pacific and , it’s now the region’s major intergovernmental organisation for protecting and managing the area’s environment and natural resources.

SPREP’s main areas of concern are:

*Nature Conservation

*Pollution Prevention

*Climate Change and Variability

*Economic Development

*Capacity Development*International Water Project

With a head office in Western Samoa, SPREP employs a staff of just 70 who work on the ground in 14 of to serve the 21 member nations. Their primary focus is to protect and improve the environment in the understanding that local people are better able to take on this responsibility than anyone else.

And, to really stress the urgent need for action, 2005 has been declared "The Year of Action Against Waste" in the Pacific, an initiative that’s been designed to promote and instigate activities that will reduce all types of solid waste.

Environmental as Anything

Kiwi Steve Menzies, was working for New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment when he was sent to Samoa on a six-week secondment to look at how SPREP’s International Waterways Project (IWP) might use marketing techniques to assist communities with reducing waste while protecting freshwater and coastal resources.

During that visit, a job became available and Steve was asked to apply.

“The job specifications included living in Samoa for 3 years - a gorgeous country with fantastic people and beautiful beaches ­- travelling to remote and fascinating communities and spending every waking moment thinking of practical ways to help Pacific island people protect one of the most incredible environments on the planet.”

A dream job in many people’s books.

Upon taking up the posting - official title “Community Communications Specialist for the IWP of the Pacific Islands” – Steve’s attention was trained on providing local people with useful and practical tools to promote change.

Spare Some Change

So, how does a person promote change in communities that are diverse, often without infrastructures and where, in some cases, the locals don’t see any need to modify their behaviour?

“The main thing we’re trying to do at the IWP is find ways to focus on the behaviours we want people to adopt and then find simple tools, services , or incentives that will really help people to change. help governments empower communities to manage their own resources in an effective way. Incentives are the key In this regard, - it's vital for us to show people - at national, provincial, and local levels - that we have an approach to offer them that can provide real benefits for people.”

Seeing Red

Throughout the Pacific, it’s estimated only 10% of the population has sewerage systems and, in low-lying areas septic tanks and pit latrines dramatically increase the danger of waste leaching into waterways, which becomes an even bigger problem in atoll regions and with floods.

It’s no surprise then that diarrhoea is a common infectious condition in Pacific Island communities and tragically, it’s become a leading causes of death, particularly in children under five and yet, many communities for whom this is an issue, don’t see a relationship between illness and waste management.

Biologist Environmental consultant, Dr Leonie Crennan , believes one of the reasons sanitation is such a low priority in Pacific Islands countries is because people literally can’t see the problem. “While many people are concerned about the taste and colour of water, germs aren’t visible to the naked eye, so many people aren’t aware of what they’re being exposed to.”

“In Kiritimati Island, people didn’t believe there was a connection between their flush toilets and polluted groundwater until a red vegetable dye was poured into one of the toilets. People were really shocked when they saw a pink colour appearing in one of their wells.”

Royal Flush

In Fiji, Pita Vatucawaqa, the chair of his village environment committee, is delighted with his decision to install a composting toilet in his home village of Vunisinu.

Only 45 minutes drive from Suva, this low-lying rural village is prone to frequent flooding and, Pita says, he’s had to relocate the family’s pit toilet more than ten times over the last ten years.

“I’m pretty happy about our new composting toilet; because our village is virtually under sea level all the nutrients from our toilets are leaking straight into the river and for me it’s much better because, every year or so, I had to move my pit toilet, but this compost toilet is going to last forever. I’m going to use it, my son is going to use it, my grandchildren are going to use it.”

In fact, the toilet became such big news that Radio Fiji did an interview making it quite an attraction for people from nearby villages – which is really positive in terms of getting the message across about alternative methods for dealing with waste.

Good environmental ethics can also save money

In addition to all its other work, the IWP is about to conduct one of the region’s first studies into how much money might be saved if waste management practises were improved. Quantifying the cost of medicines to families, the cost of sick days to businesses not to mention the possibility of lost tourism will all add up and, if people can be shown that money spent can be money saved, it will help motivate them to change their ways.

Sarah Hunter, a photographer, spent three weeks travelling to Vanuatu, Fiji and Kiribati on behalf of SPREP to compile a visual record of life on the islands.

“My first journey was to Malakula Island In Vanuatu to visit a Marine Reserve established by local chiefs to protect the crab population - an isolated, beautiful location - but it was all downhill from there.”

“The next leg was Fiji where things got really twisted - in Suva I had the pleasure of visiting the Suva dump, a village trying to clean up their water and then a shantytown on the outskirts of Suva where Fijians and Indians live, side by side, in squalor. The only sandy beach I stood on was covered in rubbish – plastic and nappies. Following that I was on a plane heading for the equator to Kiribati which is a nightmare in terms of overpopulation and the struggle to provide clean water - but despite the horrors I met some amazing people who are doing their best to turn the tragedy around”

People Win Prizes

It’s hard to believe but, parts of the tiny atoll nation, Kiribati are more densely populated than Tokyo; over 40,000 people living on South Tarawa where more than 6,500 tonnes of rubbish are created every year and yet, it’s estimated, over 80% of that waste could be recycled or composted.

This problem is compounded by the fact that there is no such thing as a rubbish bin and all this mixed waste is simply swept into big piles in the middle of villages – a magnet for rats and disease.

Recent initiatives are having a massive impact on this problem.

The country has recently introduced a small levy on all plastic bottles and cans – helping to create a self-funded recycling system that pays people to remove this material from streets and beaches.

All households are now encouraged to use their green waste to feed Banana Circles – small cardboard lined compost pit s surrounded by banana trees to help feed the family and protect the groundwater system.

Ritia Bakineti, the National Coordinator of the Kiribati IWP ran a competition last year as a fun way of building on existing waste reduction these initiatives and dealing with the remaining “rubbish” that could not be recycled or composted.

Green Bags were given out and prizes were offered to individuals, households and community groups who filled the greatest number with inorganic and non-recyclable rubbish in an effort to reduce the piles of debris building up in public areas and on beaches.

“The high number of Green Bags collected per household clearly showed that some participants went beyond their household compound to collect rubbish from other places such as beaches or unoccupied piece of lands.”

The competition also helped to create a sense of local pride not to mention a great deal of curiosity from neighbouring communities.

In fact, due to a diverse and imaginative range of initiatives from grass roots to government level, SPREP can paint a pretty rosy picture of the future and, provided these schemes are well maintained and implemented, it means we’ll all be able to continue enjoying the wonder and beauty of the Pacific for generations to come