ROADS along the coastal communities within the Western and Central divisions will be upgraded through a $A3million ($F4.7million) funding provided by the Australian Government.
These infrastructure upgrade will be provided for Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
The funding was announced by Australia’s Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at a Pre-COP31 Summit press conference in Nadi yesterday.
“I’m very pleased to announce that Australia is making a $3million contribution through the Climate Infrastructure for Resilient Coastlines and Riverbanks (CIRCAR) project which will be focused on this instance on Fiji with an upgrade to the Kings Rd and Queens Rd in central and western provinces of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati and Tuvalu.
“Four projects in total to help these countries adjust to climate change, particularly focused on the coastlines, with erosion, with rising sea levels, with the natural disasters which are increasingly less natural and more frequent.”
He said infrastructure upgrade was taking an increasing proportion of the GDPs of Pacific Islands.
“Both in terms of disaster recovery but also the need to invest in resilience.
“And investments now can reduce that cost in future after natural disasters.”
Welcoming the funding, Fiji’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Lynda Tabuya said roads along Fiji’s coastal communities needed to be moved to higher grounds.
“A lot have been washed away because of natural disasters,” said Ms Tabuya.
“And we have sea level rise. We saw Tuvalu up to 21 centimetres, almost a 30 centimetre ruler of sea level rise in the last few decades.
“So this is real for us in the Pacific.”
Infrastructure that will be supported by the funding through the CIRCAR project include the Wau-Bulolo Highway in Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea, the Kings Rd and Queens Rd, in Central and Western divisions in Fiji, the East Micronesia Cable landing site in Nanikaai, Tarawa, Kiribati and the landing site of the VAKA undersea telecommunications cable in Tuvalu being delivered through the Falepili Union.
The CIRCAR project is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP).
The project is delivered by not-for-profit organisation Live & Learn Environmental Education in partnership with engineering firm ARUP.
