There are 1,200 Guna people on the island of Gardi Sugdub. Their land is being swamped by the rising Caribbean Sea due to climate change.
According to The Wall Street Journal, they will be the first residents of Latin America to be moved by the government because of the rising sea.
People have to move their belongings to higher ground when the tide goes up because the water enters some houses. He said that teachers and students have to wear rubber boots in the classroom.
According to the Journal, the move to modern homes in La Barriada was planned for more than a decade.
Most of the islands in the San Blas archipelago are unpopulated. More than a century and a half ago, many of the islands were settled by 30,000 Guna who came from the Panamanian mainland.
There are serious issues for the other islands. Experts say that many of them will be under water by the year 50.
Most of the Guna will probably have to be abandoned by the end of the century based on current sea-level rise predictions, according to the director of the physical monitoring program.
Ligia Castro is in charge of climate change policy at Panama's environmental ministry. We have enough time to move them to the mainland.
The full Wall Street Journal article can be found here.
The article was first published on HuffPost.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
