Where is funafuti tuvalu located

Since the rising ocean contaminated underwater ground supplies, Tuvalu is now totally reliant on rainwater, and droughts are occurring with alarming frequency. Even if the locals could plant successfully, there is now not enough rain to keep even simple kitchen gardens alive. The fish too, the stuff of life here, have become suspect.

Ciguatera poisoning affects reef fish who have ingested micro-algaes expelled by bleached coral. When fish infected with these ciguatera toxins are consumed by humans, it causes an immediate and sometimes severe illness: vomiting, fevers and diarrhoea. At the local hospital, a specialist department has been set up to study and manage climate change-related illnesses.

Suria Eusala Paufolau left, or above on mobile , acting chief of public health, says cases of fish poisoning began to climb a decade ago; around the same time the weather really started to go haywire. Higher daily temperatures are also putting people at daily risk of dehydration, heatstroke and heat rashes, Paufolau says. But there is always a sense of fear about what is happening to our home.

Tuvalu is heavily reliant on foreign aid, with most of its GDP made up from donations from the UN and neighbouring countries. But as climate change batters the seashore, a trickle of young Tuvaluans are returning, even if coming home can feel claustrophobic after the freedoms of life beyond the islands.

When I came back I immediately noticed the difference. The heat is sometimes unbearable now, and the erosion is also dramatic. If this sounds like a tidal wave of despair, the mood on the ground is far less acute.

In the afternoons, people snooze in hammocks for hours, and light campfires on the beaches to fry fish and keep the mosquitoes away. A sleepy, sanguine air permeates day-to-day life, as locals watch the lapping of the waves move ever closer. Plans for adapting to climate change include the ongoing — and much delayed — construction of a sea wall to protect the administrative centre of the capital, funded by the UNDP.

The local town council has a plan to dredge and reclaim land at the south of Fongafale, raise the land 10 metres above sea level, and build high-density housing. Other options — such as constructing a floating island — are also being explored, as is importing refuse from Australian mines to construct an energy wall to ring the atolls, breaking up the power of the sea as it smashes towards the islands.

How the reef ecosystem would survive such a wall has not been explained. Tinilau is referring to the cheerful burning of coal by the US and Australia, among others, despite a recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changewarning that global warming must be kept to a maximum of 1. Fiji has repeatedly offered land to the Tuvaluan government to relocate their population 1,km south, an offer the Sopoaga government has not accepted.

Because it fails to understand the implications of this issue for the entire world. I believe we still have time to make this island very attractive, very beautiful, and continue to be inhabited by generations of Tuvaluans to come. Seen from the air, Tuvalu looks like paradise: a slim scar of sand densely planted with coconut palms, and ringed by shallow emerald waters.

But up close, the fragility of the land reveals itself. Beside the runway, golden sand spills on to the concrete, and scraggly green grass struggles to survive.

The horizon is flat, and dominated by sea; sea that presses at you from every side. Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general. Prime Minister: Enele Sosene Sopoaga. Enele Sosene Sopoaga was appointed prime minister in August , succeeding Willy Telavi who was dismissed by the governor-general for his failure to convene parliament for eight months. The younger brother of former Prime Minister Saufatu Sopoaga, he served as a civil servant and diplomat before entering politics in He has been one of the most prominent spokesmen for his country on climate change in his various capacities as ambassador to the UN, foreign minister and head of the Tuvaluan delegation to the Cancun international climate change conference in Tuvalu has no political parties.

Allegiances revolve around personalities and geography. The member parliament is popularly elected every four years. The prime minister is chosen by MPs. Many islanders use satellite dishes to watch foreign TV stations. Some key dates in Tuvalu's history:. The captain names the island Ellice Island. Later this name was applied to all nine atolls. In Peruvian slave traders kidnap islanders - nearly two-thirds of the population of the islands of Funafuti and Nukulaelae.

Tuvalu statistics. Full name: Tuvalu Capital: Funafuti.