Publication Date October 2, 2017 | Deutsche Welle

Climate change drives Solomon Islands' people of the sea ashore

Solomon Islands
At high tide, Lau Lagoon's manmade islands barely rise above the waterline. During king tides and
 strong winds, which are becoming increasingly frequent, some islands are now completely submerged. Photo: Beni Knight
At high tide, Lau Lagoon's manmade islands barely rise above the waterline. During king tides and
 strong winds, which are becoming increasingly frequent, some islands are now completely submerged. Photo: Beni Knight

Dotted across the Lau Lagoon are close to 100 tiny, sun- and salt-bleached islands, topped with scrubby, wind-bent trees and clusters of homes built from timber and palm fronds. Some are home to as few as five people, others as many as 400. But a growing number are deserted. 

The Lau Lagoon lies at the northeastern tip of Malaita in the Solomon Islands archipelago in the South Pacific. Unlike the large island of Malaita, the lagoon's atoll is manmade, built from coral heaved up from the lagoon floor and rising an average of just a meter above the high-tide mark. 

Locals say the wane i asi, or people of the sea, first built the islands some 18 generations ago - dating them back to the 17th century - to evade the mosquitoes and disease of the mainland, to be closer to the water that provides them with fish and, some say, to avoid conflict with the wane i tolo, or people of the bush. 

Since then, the wane i asi have constantly repaired and rebuilt their islands. But now, a practice they has sustained them for hundreds of years is becoming a losing battle.   

Rising tides 

Climate change means the sea level is rising, storms are intensifying and seasons are becoming unpredictable. Coral is increasingly torn away from the islands and returned to the lagoon floor. These days, repairing them does little more than delay the inevitable. 

Solomon Islands has a population of 560,000 people and a growing number of them are being forced to leave their homes - not just in Lau Lagoon, but also low-lying coastal areas on Malaita, and across the entire atoll, one of the world's largest. 

It has been more than a decade since the island of Tauba in Lau Lagoon was first submerged completely during a high tide.

Tauba Island's residents belong to two different tribes. John Kaia is chief of one of them, the Aenabaolo. At 52, Kaia says he has witnessed the impacts of the changing climate over his lifetime. 

"Before, we used to know the seasons, but now the wind, the rain, the cyclones can come at any time. We don't know when." Kaia says. "Cyclones always used to come when the wind was from the west, now they come even when the wind is from the east."

Climate change changes everything 

In July 2015, Cyclone Raquel became the first cyclone on record to hit the South Pacific Ocean in July. It caught Solomon Islanders by surprise and left many villages devastated. 

But for a community that has long lived in harmony with nature, even more subtle climatic changes have profound consequences. 

"Climate change has not only affected the weather, it has affected everything, the people, the sea, the land, even the food we eat has changed," Kaia says. "People's lives have already changed so much." 

The erratic seasons have forced island farmers to resort to chemical fertilizers, which Kaia believes are "harmful to people's health." 

Even the children's education is impacted. The only route to their school on Malaita is by boat - dugout canoes equipped with tatty plastic sails. Kaia says unpredictable weather has made these daily journeys dangerous.