Micronesia Sun Bright News from the Deep Pacific
Photo Source: United States Trade Development Agency
By Christopher Cottrell
March 9, 2026, Palau___Hawaii Architects, a Honolulu based construction firm, has been awarded a US$ 2.37 million United States Trade Development Agency (USTDA) award to study how to best assist Palau’s ocean embattled Belau National Hospital.
First built in 1992 with just 90 beds for Palau’s 17,700 population across 340 islands, the Belau National Hospital is dangerously located on the coast in the capital city of Koror where it is regularly battered with increasingly harsher storms. Rising seas threaten to consume its foundations within a generation. Last year, it was also cyber-attacked by a ransomware gang in February, and also in June of 2024, with Palau cyber-security pointing to China.
Protection for a new inland location with upwards of 120-150 beds and advanced medical equipment was recently formalized between Palau President Whipps Jr. and Hawaii Architects at the Pacific Agenda Summit in Honolulu, where multiple Pacific Islands nations met with U.S. agencies to bolster investment and security.
Palau President Whipps Jr. told the Micronesia Sun, “We’ve had to evacuate people from the current hospital during storms because the tides come right up to the hospital.”
He added, “When you look at it on normal days, even on high tides, it doesn’t look bad. But when storms come and it’s a high tide, then you’re looking at water coming right up into the hospital, which is a single-level building.”
According to the U.S. Department of State, “The feasibility study will advance the construction of a new modern hospital with a capacity of up to 150 beds and support the deployment of U.S. equipment to provide advanced medical capabilities currently unavailable in Palau.”
A recent study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health notes that, “A limited healthcare infrastructure remains in Palau despite global advancements in healthcare. Lacking local access to specialty care in cardiology, oncology, and orthopedics, Palau is a nation designated as a medically underserved area.”
In other words, this USTDA support for Palau is a welcome check-up.
