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Integrating Social and Natural Science Inputs: Groundwater Monitoring at Lifuka (Tonga) and Recharge Study at Bonriki (Kiribati) (2001)

This paper describes a groundwater pollution study on the island of Lifuka in the Kingdom of Tonga, in a village where private wells are an important source of water, in addition to dependence on household rainwater tanks and a public reticulated system.

On low lying coral islands, potable water is commonly sourced from shallow, fresh groundwater lenses. Although rainwater is also collected in tanks in the wet periods, dependence on the lense for all water needs becomes critical in dry periods. Protecting the groundwater from pollution is a major concern. In the management of reticulated supplies private land is sometimes converted to a public reserve to restrict access and use in an attempt to ensure that groundwater is protected from surface contaminants. Usually this is achieved by a lease agreement between landholders and the government utility and this arrangement can be politically, socially and economically contentious. However in the village context where private wells are still used by landholders, control of pollution sources is more practically complex, while still raising many sociocultural considerations.

At South Tarawa, a strong effort has been made to place work on water resources within its socio-cultural context. Combination of social and technical science has also featured in an assessment of groundwater pollution on the island of Lifuka in the Ha’apai Group of the Kingdom of Tonga. Here there was a strong component of community involvement in the monitoring of pollution as part of a broader strategy of consultation, information and education.* Students, staff and family members at Joseph’s School in the village of Pangai-Hihifo played active roles in the installation and maintenance of the experimental monitoring site, which included the use of a pink ‘Rhodamine-WT’ dye to follow the movement of groundwater in the aquifer. The use of the dye provided a graphic visual illustration to local people of the extent of the aquifer, and of the notion that pollution from sanitation facilities could impact upon their water sources. It also demonstrated that any substance that may enter the groundwater through wells or other sources such as rubbish tips could remain there and travel from one area to another, becoming a potential health hazard.

Both projects aimed to increase the understanding and effective management of groundwater resources and both projects encountered the often conflicting priorities of environmental conservation and human need. However, from the investigations, it may eventually be perceived that changes in behaviour which protect the natural resource will also sustain human welfare.

The groundwater pollution study in Tonga and the groundwater recharge study in Kiribati were conducted within the framework of the UNESCO International Hydrogeological Programme (IHP) Humid Tropics Programme, and were two of the three field projects recommended at the workshop on Pacific Water Sector Planning, Research and Training in Honiara, Solomon Islands in June 1994. The projects were reviewed and updated at the UNESCO/SOPAC Water Resources Workshop at USP, Suva, Fiji in July 1997.

*Crennan, L. 2001 Integration of Social and Technical Science in Groundwater Monitoring and Management. Groundwater Pollution Study on Lifuka, Ha’apai, Tonga. Recharge Study on Bonriki, South Tarawa, Kiribati. IHP-V Technical Documents in Hydrology No. 43. UNESCO, Paris.


Start date 04-10-2005 1:54 pm
End Date 04-10-2005 1:54 pm

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

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