In 2009, Pete Renshaw boarded an almost empty, 737 from Australia and island-hopped his way to the Marshall Islands. He spent a week on the islands, meeting with contractors who were building 12 schools with engineering consultancy, BECA. The project was part of the Infrastructure Development Maintenance Program funded by the US government.
The Marshall Islands are situated halfway between Australia and Hawaii. Made up of a chain of 34 islands built on top of volcanic rock and coral atolls. The entire country is just 2.1 meters above sea level with the majority of buildings on the water’s edge with many parts of the atolls less than 100m wide. All surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, there is no surface source supply of fresh water and limited funding making desalination not affordable.
13 years on, Pete still considers this one of the most memorable projects he’s been part of.