On Réunion Island, a world-first facility to help the population cope with global warming
The island of Réunion is exposed to seven out of eight natural hazards. The damage caused by these hazards is set to become much worse with global warming. To prepare the population for what lies ahead, a unique centre dedicated to disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change is being built on the island.
Pascal was at work that day. A nursing assistant at the university hospital in Saint-Denis, Réunion, he had been called in to fortify the hospital staff. Outside, a violent wind was blowing. It was 22 January 2002, and a red alert had been declared at 8am. Dina, a tropical cyclone, was approaching off the island’s coast.
“When I was a kid, I loved cyclones! I wasn’t afraid of them. My mother and father would stay home from work, and we’d put on music and play board games… We didn’t go to school, it was like a holiday!” But at the hospital, he had to worry about his wife and their baby, just a few months old, whom he had left earlier that morning. Pascal and his family live in La Montagne, a small hamlet located on the hills of Saint-Denis, known for its cool air. On that particular day, La Montagne’s topography made it a veritable playground for Dina’s winds. Gusts of over 200 km/h swept up everything in their path, including the tin roof of the family home. In the corridors of the hospital, Pascal heard the news and called for help. He felt “kidnapped” in his workplace, but couldn’t leave because the risk was too great.
The fire brigade couldn’t help either: Pascal’s call had been the 60th since the start of the day. Pascal’s wife had to wait until the alarm was lifted 28 hours later. She hid under some furniture where there was still a tiny section of roof remaining.
Since 2021, opposite Roland-Garros airport in Saint-Denis, dozens of workers have been constructing a building that is one of a kind. “It’s a big deal from my professional perspective, and it’s really interesting to follow a project of this scale!” Martin, logistics coordinator for the platform behind the project, is talking about the PIROI Centre: a gigantic bioclimatic structure being built on a 4,000 m2 site, dedicated to climate change adaptation and reducing the impact of natural disasters in the south-west Indian Ocean region.
Containing a training centre, a humanitarian warehouse, a training and simulation area, a virtual reality space, and crisis management offices, the PIROI Centre may look like something straight out of a sci-fi film, though it is set to be inaugurated in September 2024.
“Your stomach turns just thinking what could happen”
To really grasp the need for this innovative centre, we need to go back 24 years. In 2000, the Indian Ocean Commission noted that there was no disaster response capacity in the region, despite the fact that it was highly exposed to natural hazards. The French Red Cross and the Red Crescent then came up with a novel mechanism: the Indian Ocean Regional Intervention Platform, a specialised facility for disaster risk management that brings together the seven national Red Cross units in the region.
Christian Pailler, who has been in charge of PIROI since its creation, remembers the beginnings of this “humanitarian response base”: “It was a regional warehouse for emergency resources that would be used to help member countries in the event of a disaster: water treatment units, temporary shelters, tools to rebuild homes, and medical emergency equipment.”
From a warehouse to a genuine solidarity network, PIROI now has around twenty employees and more than 35,000 volunteers. As well as mobilising material and human resources, the platform makes it a point of honour to work as closely as possible with local populations, because “resilience also requires a better understanding of the risks, and how to protect oneself against them”, says Christian Paillier.
For example, to deter people from trying to cross low-water crossings during floods, PIROI organises realistic training courses where local residents are faced with roads submerged by heavy rains. With the help of a canyoning organisation, “we prove to these residents that even if they think they can cross, they can’t”. The low-water crossings are a real attraction for Yanis, a 27-year-old from Réunion: “You get a rush of adrenaline and a knot in your stomach when you think about what could happen to you on these crossings. You really want to cross them!”
Raising awareness also involves PIROI’s best ambassadors: the marmailles (Creole for children). Since 2011, the Paré Pas Paré project has been part of the national education program for Reunion’s younger inhabitants, who learn about the specific characteristics of their island and how to protect themselves against its natural hazards: floods, cyclones, volcanic eruptions, vegetation fires, heavy swells and tsunamis, as well as seismic activity. Pascal, who lost his car in 2002, wishes there had been such prevention in his day: “I might have been more wary of the wind’s power, and built a windproof roof from the outset, as I did after the first one was blown away”.
But will Pascal’s efforts be enough to deal with the consequences of climate change? Marie Dominique Leroux, head of the Indian Ocean studies and climatology division at Météo France, doubts it. Leroux recalls Cyclone Freddy in 2023, the longest cyclone ever recorded, which devastated neighbouring territories.
“On Réunion Island, we were lucky to be spared. The cyclone passed 190 km to the north. In the future, it is statistically more likely to reach the island. Had Freddy’s eye hit Réunion, it would have gusted to over 300 km/h.” Leroux adds that “the sea is the main energy source for tropical cyclones, so higher sea temperatures mean stronger cyclones, with more destructive winds and more intense swell”.
According to her forecasts, if the Paris agreements (aiming to limit global warming to +1.5 degrees by the end of the century) are not respected, the nickname “The Intense Island” could have dramatic resonance. The worst-case scenario foresees temperatures rising by more than 4 degrees by 2100, which would cause a cascade of catastrophes: increased risk of flooding, periods of severe drought followed by heavy rainfall with soils unable to absorb such quantities of water, coastal submersion, intensification of cyclones…
Scaling up with the PIROI Centre
The members of PIROI are well aware of these forecasts. “With the PIROI Centre, we’re going to scale things up: we’re doubling our disaster response capacity, our hosting capacity, and our discussions with countries in the region. We’re also specialising our teams,” says Christian Paillier, PIROI’s Regional Director. He remembers how the idea had germinated 10 years ago: “it took a few years of outreach, pleading with partners, and discussions with authorities and communities”.
It was this approach that helped raise the 7.6 million euro necessary to launch construction of the PIROI Centre. Today, all eyes are on the progress of the project, for in addition to being a local and national project, this experimental laboratory is also an expression of European policy. Indeed, 24 percent of the centre’s construction was financed by the INTERREG fund, a European territorial cooperation fund.
Major projects require major resources. When we arrived on site, we quickly discovered the centrepiece of the PIROI Centre: a 900m2 humanitarian warehouse, a source of joy for Martin, PIROI’s logistics coordinator. According to Martin, this warehouse will transform the region’s humanitarian ecosystem: “The aim is not only to increase our stocks but also to enable other actors in the humanitarian ecosystem to benefit from the space and be able to share skills. For example, we will be able to store emergency equipment for the Sécurité Civile or other actors…”.
Jérôme Filippini, who has been Prefect of Réunion since 2022, sees the coming years precisely in terms of a policy of adaptation, rather than simply reacting to disasters. “We need to make people aware, right now, that what we’ll have to do in the near future will be extremely tough: we’ll have to give up an enormous amount of what constitutes our way of life. In mainland France it would already be difficult, but in a territory like Réunion, with a poverty rate of 36 percent, and 19 percent unemployment, it will be even harder.”
To anticipate future risks, the PIROI Centre is also intended to become a genuine centre for innovation and training. “We’re going to establish a kind of Safety Academy for the southern Indian Ocean, and the PIROI Centre will be one of the building blocks: that of public safety,” confirms the Prefect. The PIROI Centre will be able to host scientists and engineers, to help them imagine the humanitarian innovations of tomorrow, and mobilise academics and future students to further humanitarian research.
“Réunion is a lot better prepared than the rest of the national territory”
While all this energy and activity around disaster management indicates a collective awareness of the need to act, the public authorities that fund the project are sometimes far removed from the reality on the ground. “Fortunately, we are able to benefit from state funding from the state, local authorities and Europe to support our activities. Despite this, we have to deal with more and more regulatory and administrative constraints in the humanitarian sector. When you’re working in the field, it can be more complicated to deal with. We need to get straight to the point”, says Martin.
For his part, Christian Pailler is convinced that the PIROI Centre could serve as a model, but he shares Martin’s caution. “We mustn’t duplicate for the sake of duplication. We can, however, draw on the wealth of disaster risk experience in overseas France to work on adaptations for the benefit of mainland France, while always bearing in mind the need to be close to the local populations.”
On Réunion, while the PIROI Centre continues to evolve and gradually become part of the regional landscape, Pascal and Yanis, both very proud to be from Réunion, will continue to live their lives to the rhythm of their island.
“I think that Réunion, like other overseas territories, is much better prepared than the rest of France, because the greatest number of major natural hazards are concentrated here, and the population tends to have a culture of resilience,” says the prefect. This resilience is no coincidence. This rainbow people, who take pride in their pluralism, in terms of identity, culture and religion, have had to come to terms with the island’s slave-owning and colonialist past, and adapt in order to coexist in a challenging environment.
However, this adaptability could also be seen as a hindrance to action and risk awareness. Will the PIROI Centre, which will not be open to the public immediately, be able to raise awareness among people who do not want to change their way of life due to global warming?
“We’ll deal with it. We’ve always been a people familiar with hardship. We’ve lived through slavery. We have always – and we will always – stay, whatever the cost”, concludes Yanis, though the prefect remains on his guard: “Given what’s on the horizon, we’re still not sure whether we’re fully prepared”.
This article was produced as part of The Newsroom 27 competition, organised by Slate.fr with the financial support of the European Union. The article reflects the views of the author and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for its content or use.
