Due to the increase in sea level. - An island near Panama is cleared out.
It's time: The island of Gardi Sugdup, one of the 365 small islands off the north coast of Panama, is being evacuated. Delfino and the other 1500 residents are moving into new homes on the mainland.
It takes 15 minutes to travel by boat to the island, which sits knee-deep in the Caribbean Sea and is about the size of five soccer fields. The inhabitants are Kuna, indigenous people of the region. Delfino led us through a complex maze of alleys and huts, as children scurried around and the elderly snoozed in hammocks. Every square inch seemed built up, with shacks precariously perched over the edge of the island into the sea. There was no defense against storms, which had already been frequenting the island for years.
"As some people still don't believe in climate change," I wrote back then, "Delfino and his neighbors have had soggy feet for a long time."
Delfino showed us the foundations where houses had been washed away, and shacks submerged in water up to their knees. Even then, the Kuna had lists of residents applying for houses on the mainland, but there was still no money for a new settlement.
Impacts of Climate Change
Not everyone wanted to leave, particularly the elderly who were attached to their island. "It's my home," Ezequiel Chary, aged 81 at the time, told us.
Now they have no choice.
Twelve million dollars have been spent by Panama to create a new haven for the Kuna: 41 square meter houses, three rooms, kitchen, bathroom, and 300 square meters of land around them, where the Kuna can cultivate vegetables. The beach is nearby, they can still fish, but the houses are tall enough that the Caribbean Sea won't reach them.
In the upcoming weeks, the islanders will be relocated. "I'm thrilled," a resident was quoted as saying by the news agency AFP. "The houses are stunning."
I still recall what the elderly Ezequiel said. On the mainland, one can drive to Panama City in two hours via a road, "but the people who come to us via this road - are they good or bad"? That was still uncertain.
Their homeland will now be left to the floods of the Caribbean Sea.
Gardi Sugdup is merely the start. 49 inhabited islands in the archipelago are no more than a meter above sea level.
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