Roofing in Tuvalu

Tuvalu, a group of low atolls and reef islands, shares much of its building tradition with Kiribati, with which it formed the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. Its community meeting house is called the maneapa or ahiga. Today corrugated iron covers almost every home, and the guttering that feeds rainwater tanks is as important as the roof itself.

Climate and hazards

As on other Pacific atolls, rain collected from roofs is an important water source, which is why household surveys record whether a roof has gutters.

Roofing history

The shared name of the meeting house reflects the common Gilbert and Ellice heritage with Kiribati, where the maneaba is a pandanus-thatched, coconut-timber building. By 2010, thatched roofs had become rare in Tuvalu (see below).

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Maneapa / ahiga: community meeting house, comparable to the Kiribati maneaba.
• Thatched or traditional dwellings: now a small minority.

Roofing today

In the 2010 Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 89.5% of household records listed corrugated iron with a gutter, 5% corrugated iron without a gutter, and 5.2% a thatched or traditional roof. These are unweighted case counts from the survey sample. The survey's separate categories for iron with and without gutters reflect the importance of roof catchment for drinking water.

Codes, standards and regulation

Building is regulated under the Building Act (CAP 44.08). A national building code dates from 1990 and was updated in 2024.

Local roofing terms

• Maneapa / ahiga: meeting house.

Sources and gaps

Sources specific to Tuvaluan roofing are scarce. No Tuvalu-specific history of roofing was found in published sources. No domestic roofing manufacturers were identified.

No detailed published study of Tuvaluan roof construction was found; its history is known mainly through the shared Gilbert and Ellice tradition. Census roof tables: published information is limited.