‘We are going to sink’

Aerial view of the island of Carti Sugtupu, in the Indigenous Guna Yala Comarca, Panama, in the Caribbean Sea. Hundreds of people are preparing to pack up and move to escape the rising waters that threaten to engulf their homes in coming decades. — AFP

ON a tiny Caribbean island, hundreds of people are preparing to pack up and move to escape the rising waters threatening to engulf their already precarious homes.

Surrounded by idyllic clear waters, the densely populated island of Carti Sugtupu off Panama’s north coast has barely an inch to spare with houses crammed together - some jutting out into the sea on stilts.