Tonga recovers with international aid a week after the tsunami

A week after suffering a violent volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami, Tonga tries to recover thanks to the continuous trickle of humanitarian aid shipments from an unprecedented disaster that has affected four out of five inhabitants of this Pacific archipelago.

In its second official statement since the disaster occurred, the Government of Tonga indicated this Saturday that 84 percent of the population suffered the consequences of the ash rain and tsunami caused by the thunderous eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai.

As in the previous two days, the country received a plane with an aid shipment from New Zealand, which is prioritizing the supply of drinking water, the most pressing problem, especially in some islands where the water is contaminated with volcanic ash.

The New Zealand Armed Forces indicated that 185,000 of the 250,000 liters that the New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Aotearoa brought to the archipelago yesterday have already been unloaded, in addition to a desalination machine that has already begun to filter water.

Another New Zealand ship, the HMNZS Canterbury, left Devonport Naval Base on Saturday and is expected to arrive in Tonga early next week with more water, milk powder and vehicles and construction material that may be useful in the recovery. of a devastated archipelago.

In addition, the Australian Minister for International and Pacific Development, Zed Seselja, indicated on Twitter that the ship HMAS Adelaide is scheduled to arrive in the archipelago on Wednesday with more drinking water and a 40-bed field hospital.

The waves of up to 15 meters high destroyed all the houses on some islands, such as Mango, including health centers, for which the authorities have transferred the population of those places to the island of Tongatapu, the main island of the archipelago, he indicated. government.

COMMUNICATIONS

After spending the first days in almost total isolation, communications are recovering with “limited telephone connections” and the use of the radio system in some places, while the companies and the Government work “to urgently restore full services.”

The Government of Tonga pointed out that the equipment supplied by New Zealand has made it possible to restore “a limited internet connection” while they await the arrival of a ship to start repairing the fiber optic cable destroyed by the tsunami.

INTERNATIONAL AID

Australia and New Zealand, the most important countries in the region and relatively close to this remote island nation, are the ones that lead the operations in what is a demonstration of their historical influence in the South Pacific despite the clear progress from China.

Beijing on Wednesday donated hundreds of cases of bottled water and promised to send medical and hygiene supplies, and power generators, among others.

The Government of the United Kingdom announced yesterday in a statement the shipment of water supplies, tents and other equipment along with the Australian ship, which will arrive in Tonga, its former protectorate, at the beginning of next week, while it will also mobilize another ship with aid, which is scheduled to sail today from Tahiti.

Japan, whose shores also reached the tsunami created by the eruption of the Tongan volcano, approved on Thursday the sending of a ship loaded with humanitarian aid.

The violent eruption a week ago of HungaTonga Hunga Ha’apai, which caused a tsunami that hit several nations washed by the Pacific Ocean, is the loudest since records exist, according to the New Zealand geological institute GNS Science.

The explosion generated a tsunami that hit Tonga with waves of up to 15 meters high and that has cost the lives of at least three people, although it is feared that the number is higher based on the destruction caused, with some islands totally devastated.

A natural phenomenon caused by a volcano of such force has not been recorded since the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, whose explosion in 1883 caused a tsunami with waves of up to 40 meters and caused the global temperature to drop 1 .2 degrees.

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