Borrow Pits

In October 1943 the Brits gave the Americans permission to set up a base on the Ellice islands (now Tuvalu), to combat the Japanese who had set up on the neighbouring Gilbert islands (now Kiribati).  The Americans built an airfield on Fogafale island and used corral from other parts of the island, thus establishing the Borrow Pits.  Ten pits have been identified, of varying sizes, mostly to the north of the airfield:

These pits fill up with water, partly from rain and partly from seawater seepage through the corral.  They also fill up with the effluent from pig pens established around the pits.  Most pits have houses on their edges, and some houses are built on stilts on top of the pit - the pits are actually bigger than shown in these pictures, as they have been subdivided by causeways and houses.  Without doubt, the biggest issue for these local borrow pit dwellers is land title – they can envision the possibility that the government will want to resume some of the land that they have been squatting on for the last 70 years, if the borrow pits are to be redeemed.

(As the Japanese retreated out of the Pacific, the Americans established two other airfields on the northern islands of Nanumea and Motulalo which is the largest atoll of Nukufetau - I assume there are also borrow pits there.)

It is likely that, before it was used for the runway, much of the borrow pits land was similar to some of the lush timbered areas still in pockets of the island:

Starting in 1988 the Geoscience Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community sponsored studies and pilot programs aimed at filling in the borrow pits.  Finally in July 2013 NZMFAT funded a full project design study, resulting in AU$7M being provided to do the work.  This tender was awarded to Hall Contracting, an Australian company, in December 2014, and work started in early 2015.  The aim is to fill the pits with sand, but prior to this the bottom of the pits need to be covered with carpets of membrane to stop the sand leaching back into the sea:

Most of the many studies appear to have concluded that the lagoon held sufficient quantities of sand to be mined to provide the more than 365,000m3 of sand required for the job.  But the stories coming from the workers on the job imply that there is less sand than anticipated, and corral is being crushed to provide the required sand.  The dredger is currently working 24 hours per day:

Pumping out into a large settling pond:

The current remediation site is at the very northern end of the Fogafale island – this is the largest pit and has previously been used as the island rubbish tip.  So part of the remediation work at this site has involved the compaction and burying of all the rubbish - here you can see where the rubbish is being buried under the sand:

And this is possibly ferrous material which has been sifted out and is awaiting compaction and removal from the island:

I have seen reference to some EU money being provided for some better garbage disposal/ sorting/ recycling/ removal from the island, but do not have any details as yet – maybe material for another blog.
Buts let finish on a nicer picture - this is the view near that remediation site, looking back to the port of Funafuti, on the inside of the atoll - you can see the long curvature of the island: