Press
A Caribbean island off the coast of Panama is threatened by rising sea levels. Now its residents have to move to the mainland.
Panama City – Climate change is affecting different regions of the world to varying degrees, and in some places its effects are much more evident than in others. This is also the case on the tiny Caribbean island of Gardi Sugdub (in English: Crab Island), which lies three kilometers off the coast of the Central American country of Panama.
Residents of tiny Caribbean island have to leave their homes due to climate change
Scientists predict that the island will actually sink by 2050 due to rising sea levels. But because the four-hectare island in the western Caribbean is already subject to regular flooding, its residents must be relocated to the mainland at regular intervals. This was most recently the case in 2022.
The approximately 1,500 residents of Gardi Sugdub are currently affected by another flood in their homeland and have had to move to the Panama mainland. There, their new homes were presented to them on Wednesday (May 29), reported the news agency French Press Agency (AFP).
The former island population is to move to the mainland of Panama
The new settlement for the former population of Gardi Sugdubs Island was built by the Panamanian government at a cost of $12.2 million and belongs to the Guna Yala community. It consists of houses each with two bedrooms, a living and dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a laundry room.
And all of them have water and electricity connections. Each house offers its residents about 41 square meters of space and stands on a plot of 300 square meters. “I’m excited. The houses are beautiful,” said former resident of Gardi Sugdubs, Vidalma Yanez, of the AFPThe relocation to the area on the mainland of Panama in the Guna Yala region, about 15 minutes by boat away, is scheduled to begin next week.
Tiny Caribbean island off the coast of Panama was previously densely populated
Gardi Sugdub is one of 49 inhabited islands in the Western Caribbean region of Panama. All of them lie between 50 centimeters and one meter above sea level, meaning that they are all affected by the rise in sea level as a result of the Climate change are threatened. The island is only 300 meters long and 150 meters wide. However, Gardi Sugdub’s population has more than doubled in the last three decades. There are no longer any open spaces here.
The inhabitants of Gardi Sugdbub belong to the indigenous Guna people. On the island they lived from fishing, harvest starchy Plantthe production of traditional textiles and tourism. Their houses have been regularly flooded as a result of rising sea levels. Most recently, the islanders have had neither drinking water nor sanitation facilities, nor a reliable electricity supply.
Even residents in the centre of the island are affected by flooding
Again and again, during storms and the aftermath of cyclones, the huge waves make their way towards Gardi Sugdub. Local resident Javila Apreciado is also affected by this – even though the 44-year-old lives in the center of the island. “The flood even comes here. Then we are in the water. It takes about a day until it recedes. Our houses are repeatedly damaged, then we have to repair them,” she told Deutschlandfunk Culture.
“The sea level is rising because the glaciers are melting, because of climate change. Floods occur regularly, the houses are flooded. That has become normal.” Previously, the island was bursting at the seams. At 300 meters long and 150 meters wide, it is tiny. But the population has more than doubled in the last three decades. There have long been no open spaces here. And if the island is flooded, its residents have no options to move to other areas of the island. (fh)
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