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© 2025 Island Innovation. All rights reserved.

    News

    Curated stories and analysis from islands and sustainability leaders worldwide.

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    Showing 9 of 93 news items in Water & Food
    Rampant Heatwaves Are A Growing Threat To Caribbean Food Security
    Water & FoodOctober 3, 2023

    Rampant Heatwaves Are A Growing Threat To Caribbean Food Security

    Photo retrieved from forbes.com Record-breaking heat that has been beating down on the Caribbean for the past few months poses a grave threat to regional food security. Unprecedented temperatures are impacting soil and water, worker productivity and income, food prices and trade— with consequences for the availability, accessibility and affordability of major crops, fish stocks, livestock… and even imported food. Driven by climate change, a strong [El Niño](https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/el-nino/) climate pattern and a much warmer than usual tropical north Atlantic, heat waves—temperatures that exceed the 90th percentile of the region’s historical range— have affected both marine and terrestrial food sources. “Through successive COPs [United Nations Climate Change Conferences] we have heard repeated warnings about the imperative of limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” says Dr. Didacus Jules, Director General of the Organization of Eastern European States (OECS). “Global warming is creating hell on earth for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)— a rapid onslaught apocalypse.” The Caribbean Regional Climate Center [reported](https://rcc.cimh.edu.bb/files/2023/08/caricofsondjf.pdf) record-breaking temperatures across the region between May and August 2023, with forecasts of continued heat stress in the region through October, with ongoing increasing temperatures, humidity and frequency of heatwaves expected to rival prior records. Higher than normal temperatures are forcasted to extend into 2024, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns that these weather extremes will become the “[new norm](https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/extreme-weather-new-norm).”

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    Kiribati: The remote island nation facing a triple threat to health
    Water & FoodJune 1, 2023

    Kiribati: The remote island nation facing a triple threat to health

    Photo: Retrieved from msfsouthasia.org Kiribati is one of the most remote and geographically dispersed countries in the world. It is also one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of the climate crisis. The country faces has described as a triple threat to health: communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and the health impacts of climate change. Climate and environmental changes are exacerbating Kiribati’s high burden of disease. Kiribati faces air and sea temperature rises, storm surges and high winds, erosion, drought and flooding. This poses direct and indirect threats to human health, including injury, disease outbreaks and malnutrition. MSF has been working in Kiribati since October 2022, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, to improve maternal and paediatric care. An MSF paediatrician, obstetrician, midwife and paediatric nurse are working alongside i-Kiribati ministry of health staff to provide health care in the country’s main hospital and to help build capacity among local health staff. An MSF team has also worked on the outer islands, training nurses on neonatal care and screening for women who have high-risk pregnancies due to the very high rates of gestational diabetes.

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    Meet the Hawai’i Farmer Turning Island Waste into a Composting Community
    Water & FoodMay 12, 2023

    Meet the Hawai’i Farmer Turning Island Waste into a Composting Community

    Photography by Ronit Fahl. Retrieved from modernfarmer.com In 2007, Emiko Chantal Chung was asked to help plan a multi-million-dollar civic center on land that was once a botanical garden she had wandered through as a child. The land had since turned into an illegal dumping ground. At the time, she was working for a Hawaiian culture-based preschool as a family advocate and, while the civic center was supposed to be for the community, Chung felt an intuitive nudge that the land was meant for something else. A year later, the recession hit and investors pulled out of the project. It was then that she and two of her friends, Hala Medeiros and Lovey Simmons, realized they wanted to build more for their children and opt into a decolonized system of living that favors people over profit. “So we started off with food. How can everybody be fed?” says Chung. Over the next four years, a grassroots effort of volunteers, neighbors and equipment donors helped clean up the land to prepare it for what was next: [Ma’ona Community Garden,](https://www.instagram.com/maonacommunity/)Hawai’i Island’s first community garden. Founded by Chung, Medeiros and Simmons, the garden grew out of an effort to create more community access to nutritious, sustainably grown food.

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    In Bahamas, conch fishing is way of life. But for how long?
    Water & FoodApril 14, 2023

    In Bahamas, conch fishing is way of life. But for how long?

    Scientists, international conservationists and government officials have sounded the alarm that the conch population is fading due to overfishing, and a food central to Bahamians’ diet and identity could cease to be commercially viable in as little as six years. “When I was a child, we never had to go that far to get conch,” said Davis, speaking at a Freeport market where she sold her catch. “Without conch, what are we supposed to do?” Conch’s potential demise reflects the threat overfishing poses around the world to traditional foods. Such losses are among the starkest examples of how overfishing has changed people’s lives – how they work, what they eat, how they define themselves. Governmental organizations and advocacy groups are working to stop [illegal, unreported and unregulated](https://apnews.com/article/corruption-threatens-ocean-fisheries-de31ff22caa73def5b7d6c8e299099a2) fishing that has expedited the loss of species. They blame poaching, poor regulations and lack of enforcement of existing laws. Regulators, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S., have said cutting down on illegal fishing is critical to prevent losing beloved food options.

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    Improving water access in remote and isolated communities
    Water & FoodMarch 23, 2023

    Improving water access in remote and isolated communities

    Griffith University contributed to a [global review](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(23)00006-2/fulltext) highlighting the effects of racism, social exclusion and discrimination on achieving universal safe water and sanitation in high-income countries and published in The Lancet Global Health. Griffith Cities Research Institute and Coauthor Associate Professor Cara Beal said despite Australia being one of the richest per capita countries in the world, clean, reliable water and energy provision in Australia’s First Peoples communities has long been inadequate. “Australian First Peoples do not enjoy the same level of service for water and energy that the majority of non-Indigenous Australians do, and the issue is finally getting the attention it deserves,” Associate Professor Beal said. The findings in a recent water industry report released formally by Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney prompted an announcement by the Federal Government to commit $150 million over four years to support First Nations water infrastructure. “Remote and isolated communities experience water insecurity in ways that are specific to location, climate and culture – it’s not enough to simplify the management of water and energy resources from a city management perspective – we must collaborate with the people who live it and experience it every day,” Associate Professor Beal said.

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    What is the UN 2023 Water Conference and why is it so important? Two experts explain
    Water & FoodMarch 23, 2023

    What is the UN 2023 Water Conference and why is it so important? Two experts explain

    Our global water system is in crisis. Despite safe water and sanitation being a human right, billions of people lack access to these essentials for life, according to the United Nations. This month’s [UN 2023 Water Conference](https://sdgs.un.org/conferences/water2023) – the first in almost 50 years – could be a watershed moment for [UN Sustainable Development Goal 6](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6): ensuring the sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. These are the critical foundations on which many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depend, especially health, food, gender equity, education, livelihoods, industry, climate and the environment. We hope it could result in a “Paris moment” for water – with outcomes as critical for water as the Paris Agreement has been for climate action. **The Conferencehas five themesthat support theSDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework:** 1. Water for Health: Access to ‘WASH’ (Global Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene) including the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation 2. Water for Sustainable Development: Valuing water, the water-energy-food nexus and sustainable economic and urban development. 3. Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment: Source to sea, biodiversity, climate, resilience and disaster risk reduction. 4. Water for Cooperation: Transboundary and international water cooperation, cross sectoral cooperation and water across the 2030 Agenda. 5. Water Action Decade: Accelerating the implementation of the objectives of the Decade for Action, including through the UN Secretary-General’s Action Plan. 1. Water for Health: Access to ‘WASH’ (Global Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene) including the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation 2. Water for Sustainable Development: Valuing water, the water-energy-food nexus and sustainable economic and urban development. 3. Water for Climate, Resilience and Environment: Source to sea, biodiversity, climate, resilience and disaster risk reduction. 4. Water for Cooperation: Transboundary and international water cooperation, cross sectoral cooperation and water across the 2030 Agenda. 5. Water Action Decade: Accelerating the implementation of the objectives of the Decade for Action, including through the UN Secretary-General’s Action Plan.

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    Bringing Food to Remote Island Communities Devastated by Two Cyclones in One Week
    Water & FoodMarch 22, 2023

    Bringing Food to Remote Island Communities Devastated by Two Cyclones in One Week

    As food supplies have dwindled on cyclone-torn Tanna Island, Vanuatu, local members and missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Port Vila have worked tirelessly to find a way to get sustenance to the people on the outer island. Back-to-back category 4 Cyclones Judy and Kevin tore through houses and trees, destroying homes, buildings and food sources on March 1-3. The torrential rains drenched crops of staples such as manioc and taro, while the catastrophic winds tore down banana and mango trees leaving behind spoiled and rotting food with no future means of sustenance available. Amazingly, there have been no reports of lives lost on any of the islands. Getting relief to Tanna to bridge that life-threatening gap required miracles along with the determined efforts of Church leaders, missionaries, members and friends to make it happen. “Somehow it just all came together,” President Messick said. Humanitarian aid funds from the Church were sent to local leaders to use to secure food for both Efate and Tanna Islands. As reported by President Messick, Vanuatu stores are rationing supplies, so it was no small miracle that they found 1,300 large 18 kg sacks of rice,150 cases of tuna, noodles, bags of seeds, 150 tarps to shelter families, and 800 large garbage bags to send to the villages of Tanna.

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    Time to step up investments in rural communities on the frontline of climate change in the Pacific islands
    Water & FoodMarch 13, 2023

    Time to step up investments in rural communities on the frontline of climate change in the Pacific islands

    The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is advocating for more investments in small-scale farming communities in the Pacific. With climate change intensifying and more frequent disruptions in food value chains, such investments are critical to fight poverty and malnutrition, and to enable rural populations to grow more food today and in the future. At the Pacific Week for Agriculture taking place in Fiji this week, IFAD delegates shared their organization’s vision and [new strategy to work with Small Island Developing States](http://tracking.vuelio.co.uk/tracking/click?d=nOU2100emp1BemrhMknk2CFgaJsmhQggNKorapUTBmT_KYt9zeaaeJ3Y8plrxRZ9eRHMy2EUYVgehFqPRrEPq3guu2o9oluCOEeYYhbfEN6H4BDhGe8F169TP6UyR4ucAETIrzuUVfybPPJWTygn7xsD3gN7YNCY3oOJGjCJBumGVKzdJtGkjPEgXmgnWWu6Nte-L94-SXyC-oCyrgDX_5P_P82Hllra5LCdkPM5eoWU0) (SIDS). Across the Pacific Island states, IFAD fosters community driven development. The Fund works closely with subsistence farmers and remote rural communities, engaging with farmer organizations, indigenous people and grassroots communities. IFAD supports climate-smart and nutrition sensitive practices such as planting drought resistant fruit and vegetable crops, establishing community nurseries, and promoting agroforestry and home gardens. The Fund also helps producers connect to commercial value chains and export markets. Over the past few decades, IFAD has made a substantial investment in the Pacific region, resulting in significant impact on the ground. Total investment by IFAD in the Pacific region amounts to US$420 million since 1978. For example, in Papua New Guinea, a project helped forge links between farmers, cocoa and coffee producers’ off-takers and agribusinesses. Thanks to training in sustainable production practices, the value of cocoa and coffee sales increased by 82 percent, leading to a 33 percent increase in food security for small-scale farmers and their families.

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    Pacific partnership for water in action
    Water & FoodMarch 9, 2023

    Pacific partnership for water in action

    **Kiribati** is one of the smallest, most dispersed countries in the world. Half of its citizens live on hard-to-reach outer islands and the other half live on the main island of South Tarawa; one of the most densely populated areas in the Pacific. The country is extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels, increased water salination, and unpredictable weather patterns, with limited resources for government services in the outer islands. The GWSP has provided critical assistance in exploring water security and sanitation service options for South Tarawa, which has uniquely fragile water resources. The 2018 study helped to generate funding of more than $58 million, with $15 million from the World Bank. Recent GWSP support in 2021 included gathering input from several experts to update the South Tarawa sanitation roadmap, which guides investments and reforms in the sanitation sector over the next 20 years. In **Papua New Guinea**, one of the most in-need countries in the Pacific, access to water and sanitation services is low, and has steadily decreased over the past two decades. With World Bank support, the country drafted and adopted its first national WASH policy in 2015. The GWSP has supported the country’s implementation of the policy, which has led to a $70 million World Bank funded project which began in February 2017. Neighboring **Solomon Islands** is rapidly urbanizing, and the population of the capital, Honiara, is expected to triple in just 30 years. To help inform decision-making around how best to ensure this growing population is served with adequate water and sanitation, the GWSP funded a study on water and sanitation service delivery options for settlement communities—which are home to more than 30 percent of Honiara’s population. The results have informed investments in a program focused on WASH services in settlements totaling $82.3 million, which includes World Bank support of $15 million

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