South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)

Village falls victim to climate change

Welsh town would not be sustainabl­e by 2054 due to flooding

- By Sylvia Hui

FAIRBOURNE, Wales — Like many others who came to Fairbourne, Stuart Eves decided the coastal village in northern Wales would be home for life when he moved here 26 years ago. He fell in love with the peaceful, slow pace of small village life in this community of about 700 residents, nestled between the rugged mountains and the Irish Sea.

“I wanted somewhere my children can have the same upbringing as I had, so they can run free,” said Eves, 72, who built a caravan park in the village that he still runs with his son. “It’s just a stunning place to live.”

That changed in 2014, when authoritie­s identified Fairbourne as the first coastal community in the U.K. to be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.

Predicting faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms due to global warming, the government said it could only afford to keep defending the village for another 40 years. Officials said that by 2054, it would no longer be safe or sustainabl­e to live in Fairbourne.

Authoritie­s therefore have been working with villagers on the process of so-called “managed realignmen­t” — essentiall­y, to move them away and abandon the village to the encroachin­g sea.

Overnight, house prices in Fairbourne nosedived. Residents were dubbed the U.K.’s first “climate refugees.” Many were left shocked and angry by national headlines declaring their whole village would be “decommissi­oned.” Seven years on, most of their questions about their future remain unanswered.

“They’ve doomed the

village, and now they’ve got to try to rehome the people. That’s 450 houses,” said Eves, who serves as chair of the local community council. “If they want us out by

2054, then they’ve got to have the accommodat­ion to put us in.”

Natural Resources Wales, the government-sponsored organizati­on responsibl­e for the sea defenses in Fairbourne, said the village is particular­ly vulnerable because it faces multiple flooding risks. Built in the

1850s on a low-lying salt marsh, Fairbourne already lies beneath sea level at high spring tide. During storms, the tidal level is more than

5 feet above the level of the village.

Scientists say U.K. sea levels have risen about 4 inches in the past century. Depending on greenhouse gas emissions and actions that government­s take, the

predicted rise is 27 inches to 39 inches by 2100.

Fairbourne is also at the mouth of an estuary, with additional risks of flash floods from the river running behind it. Officials have spent millions to strengthen a sea wall and almost 2 miles of tidal defenses.

While there are flood risks in many other villages along the Welsh coast, decisions on which areas to protect ultimately boil down to cost. Officials say that in the case of Fairbourne, the cost of maintainin­g flood defenses will become higher than “the value of what we’re protecting.”

Catrin Wager, a cabinet member of Gwynedd Council, the local authority overseeing Fairbourne, stressed that while Fairbourne may be the first Welsh coastal village to be designated unviable due to climate

change, it won’t be the only one. There’s no precedent for how to develop policies for helping the villagers adapt, she said.

“We need more answers from the Welsh and U.K. government­s,” Wager said. “We really need to get some guidance on not only mitigating the effects of climate change, but about how we adapt for things that are already happening.”

Across the U.K., half a million properties are at risk of coastal flooding — and that risk figure will jump to 1.5 million by the end of the 2080s, according to the Climate Change Committee, an independen­t advisory body set up under climate change laws.

Britain’s government, which hosted the recent U.N. climate summit, needs to be much more upfront about such risks, said Richard Dawson, a member of

the committee and professor of engineerin­g at Newcastle University.

Ultimately, “difficult decisions” need to be made about many coastal settlement­s with disproport­ionately high numbers of older and poorer residents, he said, and officials need to prepare people for moving inland.

“The sea level will continue to rise around the U.K., that’s something we absolutely need to prepare for,” Dawson said. “We have to be realistic. We can’t afford to protect everywhere. The challenge for government is that the problem is not being confronted with the urgency or openness that we need.”

In Fairbourne, a continuing standoff between villagers and officials underlines that challenge. Residents feel they have been unfairly singled out and aren’t convinced there is a clear timeframe on how quickly sea levels will rise enough to threaten their homes. When and how will evacuation take place? Will they be compensate­d, and if so how much should it be?

There are no answers. The village vicar, Ruth Hansford, said many residents suffered “emotional fatigue” from years of uncertaint­y and negativity. Others simply decided to carry on with their lives.

Becky Offland and her husband recently took on the lease of the Glan Y Mor Hotel, investing in the village’s future. They’re hopeful their business will bring more visitors and financial support to Fairbourne.

“It’s like a big family, this place. It’s not a village, it’s a family,” said Offland, 36. “We’ll all fight to keep it where it is.”

 ?? KIRSTY WIGGLESWOR­TH/AP ?? In north Wales, residents in the small coastal village of Fairbourne, above, have been tagged as the U.K.’s first “climate refugees.”
KIRSTY WIGGLESWOR­TH/AP In north Wales, residents in the small coastal village of Fairbourne, above, have been tagged as the U.K.’s first “climate refugees.”

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