Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A new study on plastic consumption warns that business as usual will result in nearly double the amount of plastic pollution.

World leaders, including the Pacific, are currently meeting in South Korea to try agree on a new international treaty to fight plastic pollution.

Neil Nathan, one of the authors of the study, Pathways to reduce global plastic waste mismanagement and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which was published in the journal Science, said business as usual means plastic waste will continue to grow exponentially.

"If we don't do anything, if we don't have a strong treaty in place and make a really big effort to reduce plastic pollution and waste, we're on track to nearly double the amount of plastic pollution or mismanaged plastic waste entering our environment," Nathan said.

"That's a really alarming amount, we modeled what this could look like as a cumulative amount of plastic that's been generated between 2011 through to 2050 and it would be enough plastic to essentially cover the entire island of Manhattan in a pile that's 10 times the height of the Empire State Building."

The study put forward four policies to curb the problem by 91 percent and reduce plastic-related greenhouse gases by a third.

"We can actually nearly eliminate this problem by 2050, 2040 even just with a few but ambitious and a comprehensive set of policies that are currently being negotiated at the treaty."

The study recommended mandating new products to be made with 40 per cent post-consumer recycled plastic, cap new plastic production at 2020 levels, invest significantly in waste management - such as landfills - and put a small fee on plastic packaging.

Anthony Talouli, director of waste management and pollution control at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) said the treaty is in the "final stages" of being a strong legally binding agreement.

"For the sake of all humanity, we need strong text on the table — plastic is everywhere on earth, nowhere goes untouched," Talouli said.

DENGUE THREAT

Training began in Suva, Fiji, this week to support Pacific health professionals in monitoring mosquito resistance to insecticide.

The Pacific Mosquito Surveillance Strengthening for Impact (PacMOSSI) program covers several areas, including identifying mosquito species to understand their local distributions, and collecting larvae, and raising aedes mosquitoes for testing.

Mosquitoes are numerous in the Pacific. A 2023 PacMOSSI report showed there are over 42 species of anopheles mosquitoes found in New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. The genus aedes has 119 species in the region; and the genus culux is represented by 113 different species in the Pacific.

Many species can carry a variety of diseases, including malaria and dengue.

The report said different mosquito species are responsible for transmitting different pathogens between animal hosts, but not all mosquito species are capable of pathogen transmission.

Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services acting chief health inspector Luke Vonotabua said that to put an end to dengue outbreaks there needs to be collaboration.

"We need to have a well-trained workforce who are equipped with the resources to be able to respond to health threats when needed," he said.

"Mosquito-borne diseases are a burden not only to Fiji but to all of our neighbors."

Samoa's Ministry of Health declared its latest dengue outbreak over in August, after nearly 500 cases were reported since November 2023.

No deaths were recorded in the outbreak.

A medical advisor from New Zealand's Immunization Advisory Centre said earlier this year dengue is expected to increase with climate change and urbanization].

Dr Joan Ingram said cases of dengue increased more than six-fold since 2000.

"Between 2012 and 2021, there were 69 outbreaks of dengue fever among the Pacific Islands."

PRESERVE PIJIN LANGUAGE FOR THE FUTURE

A longtime educator and Solomon Islands community elder in Wellington hopes to continue passing down her knowledge of the language to the next generation.

This week, New Zealand's Ministry of Pacific Peoples concludes its Pacific Language Week series with Solomon Islands Pijin Language Week.

Wellington Solomon Islands Community's secretary Glorious Marie Oxenham, affectionately known as 'Aunty Glo', told RNZ Pacific that many children of Solomon Islanders who were born in Aotearoa or who migrated here at a very young age did not speak the language.

"The children may hear their parents speak Pijin [but] they don't speak it," Oxenham, who is a Queens Service Medal recipient, said.

In recognition of this the Wellington Solomon Islands Community this year started Pijin language classes for oketa pikinini and Oxenham said the children were "all very eager" to learn.

"People must continue to teach their children the language of where they come from," she said, adding that the youngest child she taught Pijin in Wellington is now four years old.

"He is speaking it a lot now with his parents. He loves to sing Pijin music.

Solomon Islands is a Melanesian nation and has 74 local languages, 70 of which are living languages, and four of which are extinct, according to the Solomon Islands Trade, Investment and Culture Office.

Oxenham, who has lived in New Zealand for over four decades, said that while Pijin is the common language — or lingua franca — in the Solomon Islands, "people speak three or four languages of their own."

"People back home are starting to realize that they must teach their children the languages of the families of where they come from and not just to speak Pijin."

PACIFIC FISHERIES SUMMIT

Protections for workers and reducing seabird bycatch are critical measures being sponsored by New Zealand when the 21st Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting, which begins Thursday in Suva.

The WCPFC brings together Pacific Island states and the distant-water fishing nations to discuss the welfare or otherwise of fish stocks, particularly the various tuna species, in the region.

New Zealand intends to lead or co-lead on three issues.

In a statement, the Ministry for Primary Industries said New Zealand wants a new measure adopted requiring fishing vessels to implement binding crew labour standards.

It said New Zealand is leading work to strengthen the rules to prevent the capture of seabirds by long line vessels fishing in the region.

New Zealand is also backing the implementation of standardised electronic monitoring on vessels.

It said this would mean data can be collected for compliance monitoring and be used for research.

The Ministry said New Zealand also wants to see improvements to the rules governing trans-shipment at sea, particularly for longline vessels.

Non-governmental organizations, such as, the Pew Charitable Trusts are also strongly in favour of these measures, and say clearer rules around transshipment will help.

More Samoans turning to India for affordable medical treatment

BUILDING NEW HOSPITAL IN AMERICAN SAMOA NOW ON HOLD

Then project to build a new hospital, strongly supported by the Lemanu Administration in American Samoa, is currently on hold, according to the Director of Health Motusa Tuileama Nua.  DoH is in charge of the committee leading the project.

Motusa is reported to have told KHJ News that “their committee has put everything on hold for now and will await guidance from Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga on whether to proceed.

“He said the Governor needs to discuss with  the incoming leaders what their position is regarding the new hospital.”

The newly-elected administration of Pula and Pulu, while supportive of the idea of a new hospital, has said in public forums leading up to the election that there is just not enough funds to do so and what funds are available should be used by LBJ hospital to improve its services and infrastructure.

(Source: talamai.com)

2024 ANNUAL CHRISTMAS MUSIC FESTIVAL POSSIBLY ON HOLD

There has been no public announcement by the Lemanu Administration of the cancellation of the government department, agencies, offices and authorities  participation in the American Samoa Council on Arts, Culture, and Humanities 47th Annual Holiday Music Festival.

Preparations for the annual holiday festival was announced in a memo, dated Nov. 19th.

However, it’s been unofficially reported that the 2024 Annual Christmas Music Festival has been cancelled due to Gov. Lemanu P.S. Mauga’s concerns that he expressed in a cabinet meeting, held Nov. 21st, that preparations would interfere with transition activities to the new administration. He is said to have cancelled ASG’s participation.

The annual Arts Council Holiday Music Festival will still be held in December and features groups from the community — this year 18 groups have registered — performing Christmas music.

Editor’s Note: The governor is off-island at the moment and was not available for comment. He left on Hawaiian Air’s Monday, Nov. 25th flight.

(Source: talamai.com)