BY JOY OFASIA
A Honiara resident is calling on the government and other relevant stakeholders to take immediate action to address the land shortage on Ontong Java Atoll in the Malaita Outer Islands.
In an exclusive interview with SOLOMON WOMEN, Priscilla Peoa, who resides in the Lord Howe settlement in Honiara but have visited her home atoll in Lord Howe and have seen the challenges faced by her people said the impact of the land shortage on the community’s ability to sustain themselves and thrive, causing hunger in the atolls of Luaniua and Pelau.
She said they are running out of space to build homes for our growing population and to cultivate crops for food security,” Peoa said. “We have been facing this issue for a long time now and we wish only if our leaders can help to address this issue.”
Peoa is calling on the government leaders and other relevant stakeholders to take immediate action to address the land shortage on Ontong Java.
“There have been promises made in the past by governments and visiting stakeholders but until now our people are now losing hope,” she explained. “The land available in the islands does not cater space for all the islanders to plant root crops (swamp taros) and that food shortage is a major problem. There used to be more land in the island, but as the years pass, sea level rise has washed out huge areas of land where islanders use to plant swamp taros in.”
She said the islanders inhabitants make a subsistence living by means of coconut and taro cultivation, as well as fishing. The islanders are also involved in copra production. The primary source of income is beche de mer.
“Our main food is coconut, fish and taro. And when there is not enough land to plant taro, we live on coconut and fish as our main food.
“Our call to the leaders is to help address this issue that has been promised to be solved the past years. We wish for the new elected leader see this as one of the first goals planned out for the constituency. We need this issue to be addressed quickly,” the concerned islander said.
In recent years, people of Ontong Java have migrated away from the atoll and reside in other parts of the Solomon Islands, due to overcrowding and competition for limited land resources, worsening existing social and economic challenges on the island according to Encyclopaedia.
