an acute water shortage in Tuvalu
Tuvalu unusually face to an acute water shortage this year. The situation is getting more worth especially in three out of nine islands, the capital Funafuti, Vaitupu and Nukulaelae. In September 2011, the Disaster Management Department declared the state of emergency because of this water shortage.
Capital Funafuti has a desalination plant donated by Japan and people in Funafuti usually buy water from there when their water stock has diminished. However, because of acute water shortage in this time, it is getting impossible to cover about five thousand people in Funafuti. Therefore they decided to set up some water stations and now people can get one bucket for each person every morning for free. But it is still not enough for the big families in Tuvalu, some of the small babies got skin problem because of insufficient taking bath.
Vaitupu island where places middle part of Tuvalu also does not get enough rain and they do not have desalination plant in their island. However, Vaitupu island is the biggest island in Tuvalu and they have some water wells whose water is not drinkable but usable for taking shower, washing cloths and so on.
Nukulaelae island where places southern part of Tuvalu faces the most serious situation in Tuvalu. They do not have not only desalination plants but also water wells because of their island’s smallness. Government had sent emergency ship to Nukulaelae island to bring water made by desalination plant in Funafuti a number of times. Now, New Zealand supported 2 small desalination plants through Red Cross and one of them were sent to Nukulaelae island.
There are increasing people’s demands of support for the water shortage such as installing some more desalination plants.
However, no matter how bad the situation is, people in Tuvalu never forget to keep smile on their face.
