Newly elected Kiribati President Taneti Maamau plans to ask help from China to raise its Island above the ocean by dredging to address sea level rise and secure the nation's future.

Scientists believe that the continued sea-level rise brought about by climate change may render Kiribati uninhabitable before it becomes wholly submerged. The country has been suffering from constant flooding, increased water salinity, and loss of some uninhabited islands. 

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Government Strategy to Combat Sea-level Rise

In an interview, Maamau said that the government's strategy for addressing the increase in sea levels is to raise the islands and secure dredgers that will assist with these efforts.

Maaumau disclosed that there are plans to raise portions of Tarawa, the capital atoll through dredging fill materials from the lagoon. The 20-year vision of the country includes strategies to secure dredgers that will assist with these efforts as well as dredging channels in the outer islands.

The Kiribati government has also sought the advice of Professor Paul Kench, dean of science at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and a leading researcher on the response of atolls to sea level changes.

Kench proposed replacing causeways, which are landfills between islands that support the main road with an elevated bridge over the entire length of the atoll. 

"The idea of building an elevated road parallel to the coast is something that we would like to explore in future with our partners," Maamau said.

Former President Anote Tang had predicted massive displacement in the Island because of rising seas, worsening salinity, and increased vulnerability to disasters. The administration even bought land in Fiji as a potential new homeland. 

Maamau does not agree with the migration strategy, citing studies that say that the islands can survive with the right adaptation measures, and citizens of Kiribati will not be forced to leave. 

Kench also cited studies that reveal that waves rolling over narrow atoll islands every few years leave the sand behind, thereby raising the islands. 

Thus, Kench asserts that the solution involves large-scale land dredging to raise the Island and razing houses to ensure the Island's safety for 50 or more years.

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Effects of Dredging to the Environment 

Several studies on reclamation and reef dredging have cited that these operations are harmful to coral reefs. In the 1960s, the dredging on Johnston Island, US destroyed 440 hectares of the atoll, and 2,800 hectares corals from the dredging area were also affected.  

In Hay Point Australia, the damage of the dredging affected corals up to six kilometers away from a dredging operation.

The recovery of the coral reefs for the dredging operations is slow, are in some cases, it may not recover at all. In 1939, the Kanohoe Bay in the United States removed 29 percent of its coral reef through dredging. Thirty years after, none of the dredged atolls had completely recovered.

A study in 2016 also revealed that building new islands and channels on the atoll in the Spratley Islands is causing considerable losses of, and perhaps irreversible damages to, unique coral reef ecosystems.

In a Washington Post article published in 2018, Tong and filmmaker  Matthieu Rytz disclosed that the current administration is focusing on developing the Island into the next Dubai or Singapore: with luxurious resorts on previously uninhabited islands. Critics of the administration warn that the plan is a grave luxury infrastructure that will eventually flood. 

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