Rising sea levels threaten Bahrain

Mandeep Singh in the Gulf Daily News (Bahrain): Up to 22 per cent of Bahrain's land could be under water by the end of the century as a result of rising global sea levels, it was declared yesterday. This is based on an Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme report, said Bahrain's UN resident coordinator Peter Grohmann.

It concluded a likely global sea level rise of close to a metre or more by the end of the century, compared to a forecast of 0.18 to 0.59 metres by the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, he added.

"We are awaiting the final report of the second national communication on climate change for Bahrain," said Mr Grohmann. "However, early results of the sea level rise modelling studies off the coasts of Bahrain suggest that between seven and 22pc of the country's entire land could be inundated (with water)."

He said as a consequence, development infrastructure, including those critical for the country's economy such as oil and gas installations; power generation plants and transportation lines, could be under threat.

Mr Grohmann said another threat was the rise in temperature. "The Gulf region is already considered the hottest part of the world. However, with the effects of climate change the maximum temperature could be pushed further upward," he said. Mr Grohmann said this year the heat wave that swamped the Gulf region had Kuwait registering one of the highest maximum temperatures on record...

This NASA photograph of Durrat al Bahrain shows that construction on the surface of the two southern atolls and petals has yet to begin. Artificial beaches have been created on the inner shorelines of the Crescent and petals, with smaller beaches on the inner ends of the atolls and Hotel Island.