This is the tower of discord. The President of French Polynesia Moetai Brotherson said on Tuesday that he was considering moving the surfing event of the 2024 Olympic Games to a spot other than the legendary Teahupo’o due to the controversial construction of a new tower in the middle of the lagoon: 3 floors, 14 meters high, all in aluminum. A 4 million euro project.
Environmentalists, surfers and residents of the village of Teahupo’o are mobilizing against this aluminum judges’ tower, built in the water especially for the Olympics event, which, according to them, could degrade the seabed and harm to the biodiversity of the site. In recent weeks, the mobilization has intensified.
“Given the issues, perhaps we can revise this option”
Moetai Brotherson, who shares these fears, rules out the use of the aluminum tower and plans to organize the event at Taharuu, a less renowned but easier to access site on the west coast of Tahiti. “It’s a beach break, equipped with all the infrastructure on land.” During an interview with AFP on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga (Cook Islands), he recalled that this spot had already been considered.
“This would have allowed us to avoid the problems we have today. At the time, this was not possible. Given the issues and the protest today, perhaps we will be able to revise this option”, underlined the president. The planned tower, 14 meters high, should have three floors, an air-conditioned technical room for internet servers powered by an underwater cable, but also toilets with an evacuation system connected to a pipe.
A petition received nearly 150,000 signatures
Already built, it has not yet been installed on site. “I don’t see where we could get the barge (of the drill) through (…) without exploding coral,” explained Moetai Brotherson. Local surfer Matahi Drollet and the association defending the Vai Ara o Teahupo’o site are behind a petition which gathered nearly 150,000 signatures on Tuesday.
“Just because they want air conditioning and toilets, this new construction will destroy a large part of the lagoon. The impact and the risks are too great for only three days of competition,” he explains.
As for Paris 2024, we recall that the choice of Tahiti was made for the Teahupoo site and its legendary wave. No change envisaged at present even if the organizing committee specifies that all scenarios are under study, in particular the approval of the old wooden tower.
For Moetai Brotherson, the only solution is to approve this wooden tower used in the competitions of the world surfing circuit in Teahupo’o for the Olympic Games. The Olympic organizing committee justifies this project by putting forward security reasons, the wooden tower (13.50m) no longer being up to standard. A technical team is working on this hypothesis and must make a decision on November 15. According to the President of French Polynesia, it will also be necessary to determine whether the deadlines for calls for tenders and compliance are tenable.