The ocean covers more than two thirds of our planet, and small island developing States are generally somewhere in the middle of it. Their environmental priorities concern the islands themselves and their immediate coastal areas, where the balance of population and resources is critical for the future. From the perspective of the island countries, the ocean is still an unlimited resource relative to the present scale of their human impacts. The effects on the ocean of the great centres of population and industry in continental countries are much more significant.
WIDESPREAD ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
The following are qualitative descriptions of the most pressing environmental concerns facing most small island countries.
Domestic Waste
The most widespread environmental problem, affecting almost all island countries, is the safe disposal of liquid domestic wastes, particularly human wastes and urban sewage. Few countries have adequate waste collection and treatment facilities even in the most developed urban areas, and those that exist are costly and seldom properly maintained. In spite of considerable efforts at rural sanitation, facilities in many rural areas are still rudimentary or entirely lacking. The result is serious water pollution both of fresh water supplies (rivers, groundwater and even rainwater catchments) and coastal waters around beaches, reefs and lagoons that are important for tourism, recreation and fishing. This pollution presents grave risks to human health.
It is only in the last two decades that countries have begun to pay serious attention to this problem, but the investments required to collect and treat domestic wastes are such that progress is very slow.
