Helping islands turn back toxic tide
Locally-driven efforts best way to solve plastic issue, writes Sam Judd Kiwis’ help uplifting for Pacific
Plastic waste is a plague to sustainable development. With a growing reliance on imported, packaged goods, many Pacific islands are particularly affected as they increasingly move away from a more traditional subsistence and hunter-gatherer lifestyle towards Western products.
But what real impact does plastic pollution have? And how do we address it?
Apart from looking unsightly, rubbish has serious impacts on human health. Mosquitoes breed in rubbish, spreading diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and Zika. Burning plastic releases carcinogenic chemicals into the air we breathe and endocrine-disrupting pollutants (which are even worse) enter the marine food chain when fish ingest plastic.
We are at the top of that food chain and absorb this poison into our bodies.
Our team is dedicated to addressing this by fostering locallydriven solutions on the ground.
Sustainable Coastlines is a New Zealand-based charity focused on preventing plastic pollution and improving freshwater quality. From humble beginnings in the Pacific in 2008, we have run programmes in 11 island nations to date alongside significant operations at home. We now have locallyregistered chapters in Hawaii and Papua New Guinea and a strong network of ambassadors and partners.
Marine debris is a global challenge. The solutions however, must be locally driven to deliver sustainable impact.
Many aid projects I have seen approach developing countries with expensive consultants who tell people what they need rather than listen to what they want. Often this approach fails in the long run, wasting critical donor money. Programmes need to be created and implemented on the ground with the people to increase the chances of success.
Sustainable Coastlines Papua New Guinea (SC PNG) was established in November 2015 to increase collaboration and develop the capacity of communities to address the issue at a local level.
To date our operational team in PNG have delivered education programmes with 22,388 local residents and involved 5765 in handson clean-up activities.
SC PNG has partnered with World Vision PNG to help tackle the issue in Hanuabada village in Port Moresby. A large-scale clean-up was conducted in May 2016, with 2647 villagers removing 18.75 tonnes of nonbiodegradable waste; to launch the four-year New Zealand governmentfunded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash) campaign.
There is, however, a lot more work to do. Our approach in PNG involves helping local people to create their own strategy to address their own challenges with access to expert knowledge for support.
Coming from New Zealand, I believe that Kiwis are in a unique position to help in developing countries in the Pacific. We have a modest aid budget, but we have technical expertise, a No 8 wire “can do” attitude and historically, we are thankfully not associated with regional controversy. If anyone is interested in learning more, offering advice or supporting our work in the islands, please feel free to email sam@ sustainable coastlines.org
In Moresby, when I told people I was a Kiwi, there was an immediate positive reaction. I put this largely down to the excellent peacekeeping work that our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has delivered in Bougainville and East Timor. This has been great for our reputation in the Pacific.
Working in developing countries like PNG clearly has its challenges, but having seen people who participate in a simple intervention like cleaning up the beach having fun while doing something good, I know there is hope.
It is clear people want to do something to help fix this problem, but in an underdeveloped country, they need proven resources and support to create solutions.
We start by identifying local organisations and developing their capacity with open-sourced tools and training under the “Love Your Coast” and “Love Your Water” platforms. In PNG, because no groups existed with an aligned vision and a clear demand for action, we created a local charitable enterprise that is now becoming a vehicle for change.
SC PNG is now delivering pilot programmes which enable local leaders to deliver a tailored approach that works for the people of PNG.
Through the replicable Love Your Coast framework and committed ambassadors, positive action is rapidly up-scaling. Early programme partners from the PNG Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, with whom we have been working since 2012, have now developed into trainers that develop community education delivery skills. They have delivered Love Your Coast sessions in eight provinces across PNG and the goal is to have trained educators in all 22 provinces of the country.
Alongside the inspiring achievements my colleague Ryley Webster has made on the ground incountry, we now offer training services based at our new “Flagship” education centre in the Wynyard Quarter of Auckland’s waterfront.
NZAid has enabled us to progress this goal, by providing support for our first Papua New Guinean ambassador — Samantha Kuman — to come to Auckland on a short-term training scholarship.
Samantha has slotted into our team at the perfect time. We are in the middle of the Love Your Coast Manukau Harbour event, which has The news from Vanuatu was even worse than we feared. Cyclone Pam had ripped through the village with 270km/h winds, destroying homes and gardens in just a few hours. It also left in its wake the new toilets villagers had spent years of painstaking work to complete, supported by World Vision New Zealand and the NZ Government.
A few weeks later we returned to this remote village in the highlands of Tanna Island expecting the worst. Instead we were greeted with singing and dancing as the community proudly showed us their newly rebuilt toilets.
There was still so much else to be done but they had started with the toilets, and they had done it all themselves. Why start with the toilets? Because they were changing lives.
Before the toilets the village’s women were forced to trek deep into the bush to find privacy. This made them vulnerable to sexual violence.
In Vanuatu only 55 per cent of rural communities have access to toilets. But this village refused to be defined by the circumstance they faced. They had seen the difference a toilet could make to the women in their community, and these resources were a priority as the people climbed back to their feet after disaster.
In communities across Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, these tight-knit societies look after each other when they need to. If one family can’t afford school fees their neighbour will sell a pig to help out. If the nearest health clinic is a day’s drive away you rely on the local women to assist with emergency births. When you are as remote as some of the places where World Vision works, you have little choice.
And in the Pacific this is what World Vision strives to do. To inspire communities to rebuild their toilets, to inspire women to educate the community on how to have a healthy pregnancy and baby. We help communities that have survived for thousands of years build on the strength of their society.
And throughout the past three weeks you have shown the same solidarity with our Pacific neighbours.
Our isolated corner of the world is one few are aware of. And the issues facing the communities in places like PNG and the Solomon Islands are even further hidden from view. This makes the assistance you have offered our neighbours through The Hidden Pacific campaign all the more important. Because if these isolated communities can’t look to us when they need support to grow stronger, or when disaster strikes, they have few other friends to turn to.
We can’t stop the next cyclone hitting Vanuatu, but we can help brace for it. You have helped these communities grow more resilient. You have empowered them to face these challenges with knowhow and resolve.