SPC Geoscience Division

As Tuvalu enters its second week of a drought induced national emergency, important lessons are emerging on the nature of climate change impacts in the Pacific and how island communities can best prepare their climate defences.

Tuvalu relies almost exclusively on captured rainfall for its drinking water, supplemented by a limited desalinated supply. Without immediate rain, government and community storages on the main island of Funafuti could be depleted in less than two weeks.

Noa Tokavou, disaster management adviser with Secretariat of the Pacific Communities’ (SPC) Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC), has just returned from Tuvalu’s parched capital, where he was assisting Government to plan for future disasters and climate change.