But after inhabiting this 400m-by-150m island for more than 100 years, Gardi Sugdub’s residents will soon be forced to abandon their island home – and that’s because the island may soon disappear under the sea.
Since the 1990s, residents on the densely packed island have noticed that their thatched- and tin-roof homes are flooding more and more, especially during the November-to-February rainy season. According to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the sea around Gardi Sugdub is now rising 3.4mm per year (more than double the rate during the 1960s). Since most of the Guna-inhabited islands lie only 0.5m to 1m above the water, “it is almost certain that all the islands will have to be abandoned by 2100,” said Steve Paton, the director of the Institute’s oceanographic monitoring programme.