Poland | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 Church of St. Stanislaw in 2007. | |
  Poland | |
| Coordinates: 1°51′52″N157°33′07″W / 1.86444°N 157.55194°W | |
| Country |  Kiribati |
| Local council | Kiritimati |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.52 km2 (0.20 sq mi) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 441 |
| Time zone | UTC+14 |
Poland is a village in Kiribati, located on the westernmost part of the island of Kiritimati, within the archipelago of Line Islands.
Poland was named in honor of Polish mechanic Stanisław Pełczyński, who greatly improved the island's coconut plantation by introducing a modified irrigation system that could effectively water palm trees during the dry season. [1] [2]
In 2010, Poland was inhabited by 441 people. [3] The great majority of the population of Kiritimati as of 1989 lived in the Banana, London, or Poland villages. [4]
Poland has a kindergarten, a primary school, and a Catholic church. [5] [6]
In 2013, the Ministry of Environment in Warsaw, Poland produced a video featuring the village to highlight its sea level rise problem. The video was shown at the COP19. [7]
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, with more than half living on Tarawa atoll. The state comprises 32 atolls and one remote raised coral island, Banaba. Its total land area is 811 km2 (313 sq mi) dispersed over 3,441,810 km2 (1,328,890 sq mi) of ocean.
Kiritimati is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name is derived from the English word "Christmas" written in Gilbertese according to its phonology, in which the combination ti is pronounced /s/.
The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands are a chain of 11 atolls and coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands. Eight of the atolls are parts of Kiribati. The remaining three—Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll—are territories of the United States grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Line Islands, all of which were formed by volcanic activity, are one of the longest island chains in the world, stretching 2,350 km (1,460 mi) from northwest to southeast. One of them, Starbuck Island, is near the geographic center of the Pacific Ocean. Another, Kiritimati, has the largest land area of any atoll in the world. Only Kiritimati, Tabuaeran, and Teraina have a permanent population. Besides the 11 confirmed atolls and islands, Filippo Reef is shown on some maps, but its existence is doubted.
Tabuaeran, also known as Fanning Island, is an atoll that is part of the Line Islands of the central Pacific Ocean and part of the island nation of Kiribati. The land area is 33.73 square kilometres, and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is about 3 m (10 ft) above high tide.
Abaiang, also known as Apaiang, Apia, and in the past, Charlotte Island, in the Northern Gilbert Islands, is a coral atoll of Kiribati, located in the west-central Pacific Ocean. Abaiang was the island of the first missionary to arrive in the Gilberts, Hiram Bingham II. Abaiang has a population of 5,872.
Teraina is a coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean and part of the Northern Line Islands which belong to Kiribati. Obsolete names of Teraina are New Marquesas, Prospect Island, and New York Island. The island is located approximately 4.71° North latitude and 160.76° West longitude. Teraina differs from most other atolls in the world in that it has a large freshwater lake, an open lens, concealed within its luxuriant coconut palm forest; this is the only permanent freshwater lake in the whole of Kiribati.
Colonel Stefan A. Mayer was a Polish military intelligence officer and prewar chief of Counterintelligence within the Polish General Staff's Section II. In that capacity, he supervised the General Staff's Cipher Bureau, whose achievements included the breaking of German Enigma-machine ciphers.
London is a village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the archipelago of Line Islands. It is the administrative capital of Kiritimati.
Osiek is a town in Staszów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland, with 2,001 inhabitants (2010). The town lies in Lesser Poland, along the National Road nr. 79, which goes from Warsaw to Bytom. Osiek is located 15 kilometers northeast of Połaniec, and 18 kilometers west of Tarnobrzeg, 180 meters above sea level.
Tadeusz Walenty Pełczyński was a Polish Army major general, intelligence officer and chief of the General Staff's Section II.
Cassidy International Airport is an airport located north of Banana, a settlement on Kiritimati island in Kiribati. Until 2018, it was the only airport in the Kiribati part of the Line Islands with an IATA or ICAO code.
The only State disciplined forces in Kiribati are a unified national police force, with prison and quarantine powers, and the coast guard. Defense assistance is provided by Australia and New Zealand. The police force does not report to any ministers but rather directly to the President of Kiribati.
Banana is a village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the Archipelago of Line Islands. It is located close to Cassidy International Airport.
Tabwakea is the largest village in Kiribati, located on the island of Kiritimati, within the archipelago of Line Islands.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Kiribati, with Catholicism being its largest denomination.
Education in Kiribati is free and compulsory from age 6 to 14, which includes primary school through grade six, and Junior Secondary School for three additional grade levels. In 1998, the gross primary enrollment rate was 84.4 percent, and net primary enrollment rate was 70.7 percent. School quality and access to education are better in urban areas; schools in small communities on isolated islands are expensive to maintain. Mission schools are slowly being absorbed into the government primary school system.
The Polish General Staff's Section II was a section of the Polish General Staff in the Second Polish Republic.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kiribati refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Kiribati. In 1976 the first branch was organized in Tarawa. As at the 2020 Census, there were 6,720 people declaring as LDS members. According to LDS church, as of year-end 2022, there were 22,210 members in 43 congregations, making it the largest body of LDS Church members in Micronesia. Kiribati also has the most LDS Church members per capita in Micronesia, and the third most members per capita of any country in the world, behind Tonga and Samoa.
The Coral reefs of Kiribati consists of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba, which is an isolated island between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands. The islands of Kiribati are dispersed over 3.5 million km2 (1.4 million sq mi) of the Pacific Ocean and straddle the equator and the 180th meridian, extending into the eastern and western hemispheres, as well as the northern and southern hemispheres. 21 of the 33 islands are inhabited. The groups of islands of Kiribati are:
Protected areas of Kiribati include marine protected areas managed by the Environment and Conservation Division, of the Kiribati Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development. Kiribati, in partnership with the New England Aquarium and Conservation International (CI), manages the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), which is a World Heritage Site that was established in 2006, and is the second largest of the world's marine protected areas. The U.S. administered Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is currently the world's largest designated marine protected area (MPA), and is to the north and north-east of the PIPA.