This blog post was originally a press release published in the Marshall Islands Journal on May 4, 2021, and written by Mark Stege, who manages this project for Jo-Jikum.
Meet Nicky Komanta, the newest member of Jo-Jikum’s widening network of climate warriors, and the lead citizen scientist in a new community-based groundwater monitor proof-of-concept project in Laura Village.
Nicky earned a Marine Science Certificate from the College of the Marshall Islands, and later interned under the RMI EPA Water Quality Division. “It was good timing,” EPA Water Chief Tuvuki Ketedromo explains, “since our internship funding from NTC [the National Training Council] had run out for Nicky, and this position opened up with Jo-Jikum to continue his training as the first citizen scientist trained in data gathering of this type.”
In his own words, Nicky’s project goals include, “itotak jen bõrooj nan bõrooj im lale wāwein aer design their own groundwater wells einwot casing type, ewor ke cover ilo aibojlal ko, ewor ke an oror, im ko jet, innom test kajojo week aolep groundwater well im rokar survey ikijeen jonan salinity ak jool, im compare ippen jonan an wõt jen week nan week” or “going from property to property and see how they design their groundwater well like their casing type, if there’s a cover for their groundwater wells, if there’s a fence, and test the water on a weekly basis and test the salinity and compare it weekly.”
EPA General Manager Moriana Phillip adds, “There is a very clear and present need to enhance environmental data collection services by a number of stakeholders, and also a desire to engage communities in a meaningful way. Nicky is helping us prove that international researchers and national regulatory and enforcement agencies can get dependable data from a well trained community member, so that they can focus on data management and analysis. With a trained community member doing the work, equipped with a 4G connection and smartphone-based applications which allow direct uploading of collected data into a centralized dashboard, it changes things. We are watching Nicky closely keeping in mind that we have regional networks that could see Nicky go further into a University and emerging as a Water Specialist.”
Today you will often see Nicky bicycling around Laura visiting water well after water well. Later in August he will be sharing his results with fellow Laura residents such as National Training Council Director Julius Lucky, who is ever mindful that the RMI has an extremely high youth unemployment problem, at about 56%. Or other times, he’ll be inside a taxi in downtown Majuro gathering supplies and making sure he is ready to meet his goal for the coming week in Laura.
Wherever you see Nicky, please let him into your yard to survey and monitor your groundwater well. He—and the other Jo-Jikum climate warriors like him—might just wind up saving us all. As with all of Jo-Jikum’s youth, a broad support network is in place to support Nicky meet his project goals. The project is made possible by a Unitarian Universalist Services Committee (UUSC) partnership grant in support of a human rights-based approach to climate change.
