First ever climate resilient harbour constructed in the Cooks

Transcript

A man-made climate resilient harbour, believed to be the world's first, has been constructed at Mangaia Island in the Cook Islands.

In 2005, Mangaia Harbour was destroyed by two tropical cyclones, Meena and Nancy, leaving the residents only able to import and export goods through expensive air freight.

The project's manager, from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, Peniamina Leavai, says it developed what it calls a Coastal Island Calculator, to measure storm surge and come up with a design for the new harbour.

Mr Leavai told Mary Baines that the 1.2 million US dollar project is a pilot, and hopes what is learned over the next few years can be taken to other vulnerable coasts around the world.

PENIAMINA LEAVAI: We had to install pre-cut concrete panels along the face of the quay walls of the harbour, or the wharf to be specific, so that we can minimise corrosion. And we're looking at extending the width of the concrete stands, what the wharf sits on. Basically, putting those two together will improve the strength and durability of the structure of the wharf. The other idea was improving the operational features of the Mangaia Harbour. And to do that, we looked at three activities. One was completing a channel widening and deepening work that we have, because we found that it was not wide enough. They had this little area that when waves come in, there was a build up of waves. The second activity was to relocate the boat ramp to the south area. Before rebuilding, the boat ramp was located adjacent to where the opening of the harbour was, so the waves would come straight up and go right up onto the boat ramp. The third activity was to construct the beach spending zone to the north and south of the existing boat ramp, and also we had to dissipate any wave energy to minimise turbulence within the harbour.   

MARY BAINES: I understand since 2005 the residents have only been able to get outside goods through air freight. So they'll now be able to actually use the harbour and there will be easier transfer of cargo?

PL: Yes, that's the idea, was to enhance the ability of the residents in Mangaia, in terms of their trade. To strengthen the economic development of the island, there needed to be a lot of trade exchanges between the main island of Rarotonga and Mangaia Island. And so in order for that to happen, we had to improve on these transportation infrastructures.

MB: I haven't heard of a man-made climate resilient harbour before. Is this a first time thing, or has it been done before overseas?

PL: You're very right. This is the first time we have trialled it within the Pacific. We don't know of any other examples outside of the Pacific region, in the Caribbean, in the Virgin Islands. We don't have any of those examples that we can learn from. This is practically a first - a climate resilient harbour. And this is a pilot. The lessons that we are learning from here will help us improve our climate change adaptation programs in the Pacific. This might fail in the next 5 or 10 years, this might not fail. But the idea is that we are learning from what we are doing here. And the only way to learn it was through trial and error. Bringing the climate scientists together, with the economists as well as the engineers and the people of Mangaia. We hope to learn from this, and we would like to share it with other Pacific Island countries, and share it with the rest of the world.