Category: OCEANIA

Hi everyone! In today’s second post of the week, I will be sharing what I found from 4 research articles I read during the past few days.

The first paper I found talks about air pollution. According to Isley et al. (2018), the implications of air pollution depend on where pollutants come from. In Fiji, pollutants can come from fossil fuel combustion, road vehicles, or waste burning. Air pollutants in Fiji are mainly black carbon and sulfur. After studying the risk ratios and mortality predictions of PM2.5 concentrations, Isley et al. found that reducing emissions from fossil fuel combustion will greatly improve air quality in the region. As students in Environmental Pollution, this might seem like a “duh” statement. But to the people in the Global South who have no other means of development and progress, such a finding may ignite conflicts and disagreements within the government.

2 papers I found throughout the week talk about microplastics. I briefly mentioned the definitions of microplastics in a previous post. According to Dehm et al. (2020), the implications of microplastics on the coasts of Small Island Developing States are understudied. Hence, in their paper, they focused on Viti Levu, one of Fiji’s main inhabited islands, to study the presence of microplastics in the country. Their findings challenged the common conception that microplastics are largely found in urban areas, rather than rural areas. I personally had that misconception too! Additionally, Ferreita et al. (2020) focused on Suva, Fiji’s capital, and found that microplastics were present as well, as a result of land-based human activities. A lot of the fish in the area’s coasts have high microplastic ingestion levels. Here are some of the different microplastics that they found.

I also found a paper that studied metal pollution in the region. Metals are non-biodegradable, which means that they cannot be deteriorated in the environment. In Park et al.’s (2013) paper, I learnt that there have been high levels of lead, copper, zinc, and iron in the sediments of Suva’s Harbour. There were also high levels of mercury found in lagoon shellfish. They concluded that the release of hazardous metals into the Fiji environment would not reach a plateau anytime soon, because globalization is forcing developing nations in the Global South to industrialize to economically develop. They do shed light on how doing research like theirs is not a futile exercise, since their findings can raise awareness, and pressure their governments to do something. What do you think?

Up next, Haiti. See you in the next one! ✿

References

Dehm, J., Singh, S., Ferreira, M. & Piovanno, S. (2020) Microplastics in Subsurface Coastal Waters Along the Southern Coast of Viti Levu in Fiji, South Pacific. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 156, 1-8. Available from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0025326X2030357X?via%3Dihub [Accessed: 11 February 2022].

Ferreira, M., Thompson, J., Paris, A., Rohindra, D. & Rico, C. (2020) Presence of Microplastics in Water, Sediments and Fish Species in an Urban Coastal Environment of Fiji, a Pacific Small Island Developing State. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 153, 1-9. Available from: https://linkinghub-elsevier-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/retrieve/pii/S0025326X20301090 [Accessed: 11 February 2022].

Isley, C. F., Nelson, P. F., Taylor, M. P., Stelcer, E., Atanacio, A. J., Cohen, D. D., Mani, F. S. & Maata, M. (2018) Reducing Mortality Risk by Targeting Specific Air Pollution Sources: Suva, Fiji. Science of The Total Environment. 612, 450-461. Available from: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0048969717322246?via%3Dihub [Accessed: 11 February 2022].

Park, E. K., Wilson, D., Choi, H. J., Wilson, C. T., Ueno, S. (2013) Hazardous Metal Pollution in the Republic of Fiji and the Need to Elicit Human Exposure. Environmental Health and Toxicology. 28, 1-3. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909747/ [Accessed: 11 February 2022].

Hi everyone! To start off the week, we will be looking at Fiji! I could not find any stations measuring the air quality in Fiji (i.e. the IQAir website I usually refer to has no data on Fiji!), hence, let us just examine where Fiji is on the world map!

It is a relatively small island located in the Pacific Ocean. I think a good tag for me to use on this post would be OCEANIA. I want my tags to start with vowels just so it looks nice in the “BROWSE BY TAG” portion at the side of my blog. My apologies. Let’s get back to work.

As of 2020, the IAMAT states that the air quality in Fiji is unsafe. But why is this so? Isn’t Fiji an island in the middle of nowhere? Could it possibly have industries and vehicles too? Recent data indicated that PM2.5 concentrations in Fiji is 11 micrograms/cubic metres in Fiji annually, and this value exceeds the recommended maximum, which is 10 micrograms/cubic metres.

A lot of the pollution in Fiji is caused by plastic. The WWF-Pacific Volunteer Program is a non-governmental organization that seeks to free Fiji from plastics by 2025. According to them, they aim to reduce marine pollution by clearing marine debris and nutrient pollution through coastal clean-ups, product bans and restrictions, and plastic recovery, reuse, and recycling. But can these be achieved? I will try to answer this question in the next blog post.

There have also been attempts to manage wastewater in Fiji. In the Bavu and Namaqumaqua villages in the southeastern coral coast of Fiji, there have been developments in wastewater treatment technologies, to provide communities with better sanitation and hygiene. This was done in collaboration with government agencies and villagers. As I mentioned previously on my post on Bolivia, integrating community knowledges helps increase the effectiveness of intervention measures. There have also been efforts to properly manage toilet systems. The ecoVIP2 toilet was created a few years ago. You can click on the link to view how the toilets look like. It might not seem much to you, but to these people living in the Global South, these toilets are a sign of modernity and development. By having these toilets in place, there will be fewer improper waste disposals in flooding areas, slopes, or underground infrastructures. Put simply, groundwater contamination will be reduced.

Now let’s return back to the air. Why did the IAMAT proclaim that the air quality in Fiji is bad? Well, according to QUT, air pollution is caused mainly by cooking, domestic refuse, agricultural processes, solid waste burning, and transport. It surprises me that islanders could pollute too! Click on the QUT website to find out how locals are engaged in fighting pollution. If you have any more information on pollution in Fiji, do share them in the comments section below. I will do my best to collate whatever I can find in the next blogpost.

See you in the next one! ✿

References

Fiji (n. d.) Beautiful World. Available from: https://www.beautifulworld.com/oceania/fiji/ [Accessed: 11 February 2022].

IAMAT (2020) Fiji General Health Risks: Air Pollution. 16 April. Available from: https://www.iamat.org/country/fiji/risk/air-pollution [Accessed: 7 February 2022].

QUT (n. d.) Assessment of Children’s Exposure to Air Pollution in Fiji, its Drivers and the Burden of Disease Attributable to it. Available from: https://research.qut.edu.au/ilaqh/projects/sensors-fiji/ [Accessed: 7 February 2022].

Reef Resilience Network (2021) Applications of Innovative Wastewater Technology in Fiji. 21 May. Available from: https://reefresilience.org/case-studies/fiji-wastewater-pollution/ [Accessed: 7 February 2022].

WWF – Pacific Volunteer Program (n. d.) Plastic Pollution – Free Fiji Campaign. United Nations Ocean Conference. Available from: https://oceanconference.un.org/commitments/?id=21080 [Accessed: 7 February 2022].

Hi everyone! This is an unplanned post that I figured I could talk about, since it has been popping up on the news sites I’ve been reading. Do you know about the Tonga volcanic eruption? It happened not too long ago, on the 15^th of January 2022. Tonga is a country in Oceania, and it is a relatively small island filled with plantations and beach resorts. How are volcanic eruptions relevant to our module on environmental pollution? Take a look at these two images below:

Volcanic eruptions are central to pollution because of the highly visible ash that gets released into the atmosphere. Look at the difference in the colour of the island in December and in January! You can read more about the other social and environmental consequences caused by the eruption by clicking on the hyperlink above.

Before I end off this short update, I would like to point out its relevance to pollution. Even after four days after the eruption, ash still prevented relief flights from landing on the island’s airport. Ash is a major concern, because it worsens air quality, but also contaminate drinking water resources (i.e. through pollutants depositing in wells or rainwater tanks). As compared to the pollutants released from coal power stations, industries, and transportation, pollution caused by natural disasters like the Tonga earthquake is hard to assess in real time because each volcano in the world has a unique profile – volcanic smog may all appear the same to us, but each smog differs in toxicity, depending on the magnitude and behaviour of the plume, as well as the altitude the plume reaches.

I am quite interested in this unfortunate incident because it is happening in real time. I will provide more updates if I find anything interesting!

Up next (as mentioned in my previous post), Bangladesh. See you in the next one! ✿

References

Ives, M. & Nagourney, E. (2022) Tonga’s Airport Is Finally Cleared, but Ash Still Poses a Range of Threats. 20 January. New York Times. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/world/asia/tonga-eruption-ash.html?utm_campaign=likeshopme&utm_medium=instagram&utm_source=dash%20hudson&utm_content=ig-nytimes [Accessed: 22 January 2022].

Wei-Hass, M. (2022) The volcanic explosion in Tonga destroyed an island – and created many mysteries. 21 January. National Geographic. Available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/volcanic-explosion-in-tonga-created-many-mysteries [Accessed: 22 January 2022].