Long before Tuvalu is physically erased by rising sea levels, it is already becoming uninhabitable for certain forms of life. At the heart of this disappearance is not just erosion or inundation, but the shrinking of its fragile freshwater lens—a thin, rain-fed layer of drinkable groundwater floating above seawater in the island’s porous coral foundation. Contaminated by saltwater intrusion and burdened by inadequate infrastructure, this lens is disappearing faster than the land itself.