Assessing Vulnerability and Adaptation to Sea-Level Rise : Lifuka Island, Ha'apai, Tonga. Final Report 2013

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Lifuka, Ha'apai Water Supply Reports

e conuence of climate change and seismic events has created signicant environmental problems in
Lifuka, an island of 2,400 people (2011 Census) in Tonga’s Ha’apai Group. e subregion experienced an
earthquake on 3 May 2006 that measured approximately 7.9 on the Richter scale. It resulted in subsidence
of 23 cm of Lifuka Island, eectively creating instant sea-level rise. Erosion had already been already been a
problem on Lifuka for some decades; in the past 40 years, Lifuka has experienced signicant coastal erosion
of between 2 m and 43 m, depending on location, along the western shoreline.