Over The Horizon

Rebuilding Nauru

Dr Nancy Pollock

Phosphate mining on Nauru is to end around the turn of the century, after running for a hundred years, leaving a sea of pinnacles over four-fifths of the small island as a reminder of the ravages of mining. The Nauruan people face a future where they need to use that land, but will have a diminishing income with which to rehabilitate it and maintain future generations.

Rehabilitation of the mined-out areas of the 21 km² raised reef in the central Pacific will be a complex task. The plan is to cut off the pinnacles, thus enabling some remining before a soil base is constructed over the flattened area. On this base, locally appropriate useful vegetation, such as the tomano tree, can be planted. This will provide shelter for the noddy tern which is important culturally, and also shelter for other plants to become established. An adequate fresh water supply will be constructed in this flattened area, as well as a waste management scheme.

Some of the mined-out area of Topside is needed for housing for the growing population of Nauruans, as well as space for schools, a new hospital and possibly relocating the airport, which currently takes up valuable flat land on the coast. Recreation areas are badly needed, and were specifically earmarked by the children.

The costs of rehabilitation are to be met in part from money set aside in a trust fund by the British Phosphate Commission, the mining consortium comprising Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand who took most of the phosphate to improve their own agriculture. A settlement by Australia of $107 million in 1993, as part of the Nauru Rehabilitation Agreement, augmented by a further $17 million each from New Zealand and Great Britain, will also be used.

President Dowiyogo stated the Nauruan position at the Global Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States in 1994: "Can we recreate the Garden of Eden that once was Nauru? We are confident we can. With the resources we have set aside... and with modern technology and knowledge we can design... a safe, secure and beautiful place to go about the human enterprise."

Nauruans are determined to rebuild their home. The process of reconstructing a viable environment will be an exercise that will be of interest from many human and scientific angles.

Dr Nancy Pollock is a senior lecturer in anthropology at Victoria University.