Climate change team visits ENB island communities

THREE island communities in East New Britain were visited by climate officials and aid agency representatives to carry out a vulnerability assessment of their areas.
The Climate Change Development Authority, through the Building Resilience to Climate Change (BRCC) project programme, including project implementer United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) travelled to the Duke of York local level government (LLG), Kokopo, last week to carry out climate change vulnerability assessment (CCVA) covering three areas – water and sanitation hygiene programme, food security and an early warning system.
The assessment was delivered to four island atolls of Karavara, Utuan, Mioko-Palpal and Mualim facing effects of climate change.
BRCC output one programme coordinator George Iramu said the CCVA was to carry out hazard mapping and look at adaptation options which were the prerequisites and a requirement for funding from the Asian Development Bank.
“We came here to look at areas that show us where climate change has affected to identify and map them out to source funding,” he said.
“We had three of our output projects areas that need to be priorities under the adaptation option plan.”
Iramu said they focused on the four outer islands of the LLG that were facing climate change effects looking at the output one programme which was water and sanitation programme would see adequate water supplies built; output three projects would be early warning systems implemented at all four atolls.
He said their priority was completing the hazard mapping and adaptation option plan.