Adapting to climate change through the strengthening of asset management practices in Kiribati: Examples from the water sector

This item is part of: Boarin, P., Haarhoff, E., Manfredini, M., Mohammadzadeh, M., Premier, A., (2021). Rethinking Sustainable Pacific Rim Territories. Proceedings of the 2020 APRU Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Hub PhD Symposium, Future Cities Research Hub, School of Architecture and Planning of the University of Auckland. ISBN: 978-0-473-53616-9

ABSTRACT

Kiribati is representative of a Pacific Island nation, which is both a Small Island Developing State and Least Developing Country with very real climate change challenges and weaknesses in asset management. Climate change adaptation and infrastructure development in this nation are already intricately linked. Despite this, Kiribati is still heavily hampered with the build neglect paradigm which impacts on both development and adaptation efforts. Furthermore, the parallels between climate change adaptation programmes or projects and infrastructure development has become increasingly hazy and given rise to a growing dependency on external funding. This paper aims to understand the role of asset management in this ongoing paradigm. Consideration is given on how asset management practices could be strengthened for effective adaptation to climate change in Kiribati, with specific examples from the water sector. Further understanding of how asset management works in this context is important including more support for its ongoing implementation and sustainable funding. The methodology employed for this research include, literature review, document analysis and interview with the Government of Kiribati Ministry staff.