Massive drought in South Pacific

News24.com (South Africa): Crops are wilting, schools have shut their bathrooms and government officials are bathing in lagoons because of a severe shortage of fresh water in a swath of the South Pacific. The island groups of Tuvalu and Tokelau have declared emergencies, relying on bottled water and seeking more desalination machines. Parts of Samoa are starting to ration water.

Supplies are precariously low after a severe lack of rain in a region where underground reserves have been fouled by salt water from rising seas that scientists have linked to climate change. While nobody has gone thirsty yet, officials worry about the logistics of supplying everyone with enough water to survive and the potential health problems that might arise. And exactly how the islands will cope in the long term remains a question mark. "We are praying that things will change," Samoan-based official Jovilisi Suveinakama said.

Six months of low rainfall have dried out the islands. Climate scientists say it's part of a cyclical Pacific weather pattern known as La Nina - and they predict the coming months will bring no relief, with the pattern expected to continue. Rising sea levels are exacerbating the problem, as salt water seeps into underground supplies of fresh water that are drawn to the surface through wells.

On the three main atolls that make up isolated Tokelau, the 1 400 residents ran out of fresh water altogether last week and are relying on a seven-day supply of bottled water that was sent on Saturday from Samoa, Suveinakama said....

A beach at Funafuti atoll, Tuvalu, on a sunny day. Shot by Stefan Lins, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license