{"id":34872,"date":"2025-04-28T14:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T20:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/?p=34872"},"modified":"2025-04-28T14:44:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T20:44:36","slug":"spotlight-on-lmics-blue-gold-securing-water-futures-in-a-warming-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/2025\/04\/28\/spotlight-on-lmics-blue-gold-securing-water-futures-in-a-warming-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on LMICs &#8211; Blue Gold: Securing Water Futures in a Warming Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-34874 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SLMIC-March-25-354x500.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SLMIC-March-25-354x500.jpeg 354w, https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SLMIC-March-25-212x300.jpeg 212w, https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SLMIC-March-25.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/>In the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs), water is life\u2014and it is under threat. Spanning vast ocean distances yet grounded on fragile landforms, Pacific communities rely on limited freshwater sources such as rainwater, shallow aquifers, and fragile groundwater lenses. These lifelines are increasingly strained by the accelerating impacts of climate change resulting in worsening water scarcity, saltwater intrusion, and infrastructure stress. In chapter 9 titled <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thirst for life: Water Security and Changing Climate in the Pacific<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Mrs. Ana \u2018Ake Soane Patolo et al. explore eight case studies to demonstrate the diversity of impacts of climate change on islands across the PICTs. Additionally, the authors outline the challenges of one dimensional- top-down approaches of trying to address a multi-sectoral, complex issue as water security in PICTs. Overall, the chapter emphasizes that water insecurity is both a climate and development challenge, impacting health, livelihoods, and sovereignty. Some of the key insights the authors explore include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Triple Threat to Water: PICTs experience limited freshwater availability, low sanitation coverage, and poor water quality monitoring. Only 55% of the population has access to basic drinking water, and just 30% to sanitation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Traditional Knowledge at Risk: Modern infrastructure has displaced ancestral water management practices, weakening community resilience and intergenerational knowledge transfer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Policy Gaps and Fragmentation: Water governance is often siloed across sectors. Community priorities are misaligned with national policies, reducing effective response.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Collaborative Governance Works: Case studies from Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji show that blending local leadership, national coordination, and international support improves water security outcomes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The authors also provide a very clear call to action that encourages integrated \u201cridge-to-reef\u201d governance, investment in household-level resilience, and attention to cultural contexts. Through the workable examples they provided that demonstrate the \u2018marriage\u2019 between the integration and recognition of local traditional knowledge systems, relationships, structures, and processes to improve water security it is indeed possible to sustainably address the climate change challenges the region is currently facing.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;34875&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1745872899890{padding-top: 50px !important;}&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;3\/4&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1745872880684{padding-top: 50px !important;}&#8221;]<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mrs. \u2018Ake Soane Patolo is a part of the Risk Knowledge Action Network of Future Earth. Her research interests lie in the area of disaster management, water security, infrastructure resilience, and emergency preparedness. Mrs. Ake-Patalo is a second year PhD candidate under the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland with a thesis investigating the impact of atmospheric rivers on water supply in Tonga and the Western Pacific region.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Steven, R., Singh, A, Ake-Patalo, A.\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">et al.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0(2025). VOICES OF THE PACIFIC Climate Crisis Adaptation and Resilience Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) Report: Volume 1; Chapter 9. Retrieved from: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ir.canterbury.ac.nz\/items\/5f1ec8df-41e8-40c6-b0c2-d83b212ed3a0\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/ir.canterbury.ac.nz\/items\/5f1ec8df-41e8-40c6-b0c2-d83b212ed3a0<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do you have a recent publication within the Global South that you would like spotlighted? Share your publication with Makyba Charles-Ayinde at <\/span><\/i><a href=\"mailto:Makyba.charles-ayinde@futureearth.org\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Makyba.charles-ayinde@futureearth.org<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for a possible feature!<\/span><\/i>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs), water is life\u2014and it is under threat. Spanning vast ocean distances yet [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/2025\/04\/28\/spotlight-on-lmics-blue-gold-securing-water-futures-in-a-warming-pacific\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":34877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1008,3798],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34878,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34872\/revisions\/34878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futureearth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}