Kiribati: life on a tiny island threatened by the rising sea – in pictures
Photographer Mike Bowers spent several weeks on Kiribati documenting life in the central Pacific island nation. It's a nation with an average height above sea level of just two metres and a population density to rival London. Its future is under threat due to rising sea levels, increasingly saline arable land and contamination of the delicate freshwater lenses under the narrow atolls. His exhibition 'Kiribati: a line in the sand' opens on 30 May at X88 gallery in Sydney. All proceeds from the sale of this work will be donated to Tungaru Central Hospital, Tarawa.
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Local priest Father Martin Everi walks through what is left of the taro and banana fields in the village of Tebunginako, on Abaiang Island. Rising salinity has made the soil infertile and unable to be used. 'Nature cannot be stopped, I feel sorry for my people,' he says.
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Packs of dogs wander all over South Tarawa. These two were part of a larger pack that hung around Bonriki airport. Much of the infrastructure, such as this public telephone, is damaged.
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With space at a premium, the main waste disposal area on South Tarawa is situated on a narrow causeway with the sea on one side and a lagoon on the other. Rubbish on the island is discarded in the ocean or ends up here.
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A stick for a bat and a cork fishnet float for a ball: children play in the village of Riboono, Abaiang Island, north of Tarawa.
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By the time this three-year-old turns 20, the population of South Tarawa is predicted to top 90,000 and could be as high as 130,000, placing more strain on resources and infrastructure, which are already at breaking point.
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A favourite toy for children is an old car tyre, masterfully driven with two sticks. This young boy from a squatters' settlement near the airport had his face painted blue.
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In the mid-1990s, Toani Benson would buy petrol from a shop where he stands. Today, the shop is a a submerged ruin. The centre of Tebunginako village, on Abaiang Island, is now underwater at high tide.
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A fisherman prepares his net to fish off the Nippon causeway that connects the captial of Betio (pronounced Basio) and the settlement of Bairiki. The causeway was completed in the 1980s as a gift from the Japanese government.
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Children play on an abandoned boat. Heavy metals from rusting cars and boats contaminate the main source of fresh water on South Tarawa.
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Children play on a British-made 8-inch Vickers gun sold to the Japanese during the Sino-Russian conflict. The gun was transported to South Tarawa during the second world war to be used against the United States in the battle of Tarawa in November 1943.
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Villagers remove sand from the reef for building and to sell. Removing mass from the protective reefs that surround the atolls hastens the erosion of liveable land.
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The islanders are fearless mariners, taking their tiny runabouts well out of sight of land to fish and travel between the outer islands.
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South Tarawa has a population density equal to London's. Lack of space means pigs inhabit the beach just above the high-tide mark, and their waste pollutes drinking water.
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In November 2011 Kiribati lost its television reception when a changed satellite path removed it from the transmission footprint.
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Last light on Kiribati.
