Tuvalu – The Guardian
TUVALU'S SINKING ISLANDS
FOR THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER
Rising seas are on the verge of swallowing two of the tiny archipelago’s nine islands, and the encroaching waves haunt locals’ dreams
by Eleanor Ainge Roy in Tuvalu; photographs by Sean Gallagher
On the hottest days, Leitu Frank feels like she can’t breathe any more. The housewife and mother of five decamps from her airless concrete home to catch the breeze in a simple wooden shack by the water’s edge. She folds washing and stares out at the unsettled turquoise sea, its moods and rhythms increasingly unpredictable, as its rising proximity threatens to strangle her family.
“The sea is eating all the sand,” says Frank, 32, dressed in a pink stretchy T-shirt and faded sarong.
“Before, the sand used to stretch out far, and when we swam we could see the sea floor, and the coral. Now, it is cloudy all the time, and the coral is dead. Tuvalu is sinking.”
