\n
\n
Sydney, Jan 21 (AFP): Tonga’s volcanic eruption felt like an “atomic bomb” that shook “the whole island”, an aid worker told AFP on Friday, as the Pacific nation raced to address a drinking water shortage.<\/p>\n
Almost a week after the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano exploded, unleashing a tsunami and cutting Tonga off from the rest of the world, witnesses are recounting the disaster.<\/p>\n
On Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island, “we felt a big… it was like an atomic bomb,” said Sione Taumoefolau, the secretary general for the Tonga Red Cross.<\/p>\n
“The whole island shake because of the noise of the eruption.”<\/p>\n
The situation remains difficult, with only limited supplies of aid getting in and residents facing a massive clean up effort.<\/p>\n
“The worst part, for us, is the ash. Everywhere we are being covered by the ashes from the volcano,” Taumoefolau said.<\/p>\n
UN crisis coordinator Jonathan Veitch told AFP from Fiji the key concern now for Tongans is drinking water, with water supplies for tens of thousands feared contaminated by ash or saltwater.<\/p>\n
“Prior to the eruption, the majority of Tongans relied on rainwater,” Veitch said. “If it’s all basically made toxic by the by the ash, then they have a problem, unless they have access to groundwater sources.”<\/p>\n
Determining the location of and access to groundwater sources is now vital, he said.<\/p>\n
Water testing has begun, but after last Saturday’s eruption “the entire country is covered in ash”, Veitch said.<\/p>\n
‘A triple whammy’<\/p>\n
The relief effort got under way in earnest on Thursday after Tonga’s main runway was cleared of ash, allowing the arrival of military aid flights from Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
But the sheer distance, crippled communications, and the bid to keep Covid out of the kingdom of 170 islands are hampering the recovery.<\/p>\n
Tonga has been virtually cut off from the outside world since the volcanic blast broke an undersea communications cable, which may remain severed for weeks.<\/p>\n
“It’s not an easy one. It’s far from anywhere, as you know. So there are access constraints. And then the Covid issue, obviously. And then comms collapsed,” Veitch said.<\/p>\n
“So I mean, it’s like, almost a triple whammy.”<\/p>\n
As foreign aid deliveries ramp up, the UN is “massively concerned” about the Covid risk posed to the island nation, Veitch said.<\/p>\n
He pointed to current outbreaks of the virus across the Pacific, including in the Solomons and Kiribati.<\/p>\n
“Omicron is getting out there very fast,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Tongan government is currently investigating whether there is any safe way to bring aid workers into the country.<\/p>\n
“If there are Covid safe protocols that could be adjusted to allow safe travel into Tonga sooner rather than later we will encourage the government to do that,” Veitch said.<\/p>\n
‘Plenty of destruction’<\/p>\n
The Tongan government has now completed its full assessment of the situation after the disaster, including the impact on the outer islands that were particularly hard-hit by the tsunami.<\/p>\n
Three people have been confirmed killed, while the extent of the damage has yet to be calculated.<\/p>\n
“They didn’t have evidence that there were more casualties, but there’s plenty of destruction,” Veitch said.<\/p>\n
Many people whose homes on Tonga’s outer islands were destroyed have been evacuated to the larger island of Nomuka.<\/p>\n
New Zealand’s HMNZS Aotearoa berthed in Tonga on Friday, carrying a supply of fresh drinking water.<\/p>\n
“(The ship) also the capacity to desalinate, 70-75,000 litres of water a day, which would make a difference for the population, at least on Tongatapu,” Veitch said.<\/p>\n
UNICEF has sent a large number of of water and sanitation hygiene kits on the Australian aid ship HMAS Adelaide, which departed Brisbane on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
“We are also sending a lot of equipment into treat water,” Veitch said.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sydney, Jan 21 (AFP): Tonga’s volcanic eruption felt like an “atomic bomb” that shook “the whole island”, an aid worker told AFP on Friday, as the Pacific nation raced to address a drinking water shortage. Almost a week after the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano exploded, unleashing a tsunami and cutting Tonga off from the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-182197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}