Mitigating drought impacts in remote island atolls with traditional water usage behaviors and modern technology

Morgan C MacDonald; Mark Elliott; Dustin Langidrik; Terry Chan; Angela Saunders; Ben Stewart-Koster; Irene J Taafaki; Jamie Bartram; Wade L Hadwen

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140230

Mitigating drought impacts in remote island atolls with traditional water usage behaviors and modern technology

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Nov 1:741:140230. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140230. Epub 2020 Jun 15.

Authors

Morgan C MacDonald¹, Mark Elliott², Dustin Langidrik³, Terry Chan⁴, Angela Saunders⁵, Ben Stewart-Koster⁶, Irene J Taafaki³, Jamie Bartram⁷, Wade L Hadwen⁸

Affiliations

¹ Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia. Electronic address: morgan.macdonald82@gmail.com.
² Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, University of Alabama, Box 870205, Tuscaloosa, AL 35407, USA.
³ University of the South Pacific, Marshall Islands Campus, P. O. Box 3537, Majuro, MH 96960, Marshall Islands.
⁴ Monash Sustainability Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
⁵ International Organization for Migration, Majuro, MH 96960, Marshall Islands.
⁶ Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.
⁷ The Water Institute, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, CB#7431, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, UK.
⁸ Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia; Griffith Climate Change Response Group, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.

PMID: 32886988
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140230

Abstract

Adaptation to drought is particularly challenging on remote island atolls, such as those found in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), a nation of 58,000 populating 29 low-lying coral atolls spread over >2 million km². Exposure to consecutive atmospheric hazards, such as meteorological floods and droughts diminish scarce water resources and erode the resilience of island communities. Drought impact mitigation measures must supply emergency drinking water to stricken communities, while simultaneously conserving natural sources in order to reduce their vulnerability to subsequent events. Household surveys (n = 298) and focus group discussions (n = 16) in eight RMI communities revealed that 86% of households have experienced drought and 88% reported using multiple water sources to meet normal household needs. With no surface water and a thin freshwater lens (FWL), rainwater collected from rooftops is the most common household water source. The traditional use of carved hollows in the base of coconut trees to collect rainwater ("Mammaks") appears to have been displaced by large rainwater tanks. However, rationing of rainwater for consumption only during drought was widely reported, with private wells supporting non-consumptive uses. Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination units have provided relief during drought emergencies but concerns have been raised around dependency, maintenance challenges, and loss of traditional water practices. Most notably, RO use has the potential to change the anthroposhpere by adversely affecting the FWL; 86% of RO units were installed at island-centre where excessive pumping can cause upconing, making the FWL brackish. Balancing the introduction of desalination technology to mitigate water shortages with maintenance of traditional water conservation practices to preserve the quantity and quality of the FWL is a promising strategy on island atolls that requires further investigation.

Keywords: Adaptation; Marshall Islands; Multiple water source use (MWSU); Pacific Island Countries (PICs); Reverse osmosis; Small Island Developing States (SIDS).