Relief on the way to the Tonga Islands, without water or food
The "HMAS Adelaide" leaves Sydney Gate to head for Brisbane and then the Tonga Islands, January 17, 2022. via REUTERS - HANDOUT
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6 mins
The volcanic eruption and tsunami that hit the Tonga archipelago was felt as far away as Alaska, 9,000 km away.
The archipelago is now cut off from the world and satellite images raise fears of considerable damage.
The United Nations says the airport's main runway has just been cleared and two aid planes have taken off.
The means of communication, on the other hand, remain almost non-existent.
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Two Australian and New Zealand military planes, with humanitarian aid and telecommunications equipment on board, are to land at the airport of the small Pacific nation, hit by an
"
unprecedented "
disaster
, according to the Tonga government.
The runway on the main island of Tongatapu was cleared on Wednesday of the five to ten centimeter thick layer of volcanic ash that covered it and made it unusable until now.
First aid departing by air and sea
A '
C17 Globemaster' aircraft has left Amberley Air Force Base
in Australia.
A second Australian plane is also due to take off later in the day on Thursday.
New Zealand, for its part, announced that a Hercules C-130 military aircraft was also on its way to the Pacific archipelago.
Help will also arrive by sea: the
Australian fleet's
HMAS Adelaide is
about to set sail for Tonga with relief supplies on board.
Two Chinook heavy-lift helicopters were also loaded onto the ship.
Two New Zealand vessels,
HMNZS Wellington
and
HMNZS
Aotearoa
, carrying drinking water and a desalination unit capable of supplying 70,000 liters per day, also departed for the archipelago.
China also announced the dispatch of basic necessities.
Water and food will run out
About 84,000 people, more than 80% of the population of the Tonga islands, have been affected by the eruption of the Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano and the ensuing tsunami, the UN said on Wednesday, adding that evacuations particularly affected islands were underway.
Among the most urgent humanitarian needs are drinking water and food, in addition to the restoration of telephone and internet connections, said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
The Director of the Pacific Region of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Sainiana Rokovucago, was able to communicate for the first time today with her teams on site, by satellite telephone to discuss priorities: "
There is mainly a problem of water supply, it is the priority. This is what the government and international aid organizations are trying to deliver at all costs. It is also necessary to help people to clean their houses. We hope to be able to mobilize more help in the days to come, while keeping in mind the Covid quarantines. Shelters need to be built. On the island we have basic necessities, blankets, shelter kits, because there is a lot of volcanic ash, the water sources were flooded by sea water due to the tsunami. It will be necessary to monitor the increase in diseases linked to water quality. Finally, our work will also have to focus on psychological support, because fears of a new eruption will be on everyone's mind.
»
"
Tonga's water supplies have been severely contaminated by ash and salt water from the tsunami
," said Katie Greenwood of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
She added that there is “
a great risk of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea
”.
Tonga's food reserves may not be sufficient.
In tears, the President of the National Assembly Fatafehi Fakafanua, affirmed that “
all agriculture is ruined
”.
"
It's very sad to hear, so in addition to the water we need in Tonga, it looks like we're going to face a food shortage
," he told the Pacific Media Network.
Photos: Nuku'alofa, the “city” of The Kingdom of #Tonga, covered in volcanic ash.
🇹🇴 #Tonga pic.twitter.com/seWqP3z4e0
— Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga (@ConsulateKoT) January 19, 2022
The Tonga Islands deprived of all communications
On the Internet side, the repair of the submarine cable, damaged by the eruption, represents a real technical challenge and could take more than a month.
The most likely scenario is that a specialized boat leaves Port-Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, 4000 kilometers away. The crew of the American company SubCom plans to sail for eight or nine days to the Samoa Islands in order to recover material, then to head for the area of the eruption, where nothing is guaranteed. Are the cables intact, destroyed, stuck somewhere under the sea, buried deep? SubCom explained that the cable appears to be cut in two places: one 37 kilometers offshore and a second near the volcano, which will make repairs difficult.
But the operation will have a price, probably more than a million dollars, paid by the Kingdom of Tonga via the public operator responsible for managing the submarine cable.
Its very recent installation dated back to 2018, thanks to funding from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which had advanced $35 million.
While waiting for it to be repaired, the authorities of Tonga have entered into negotiations with a Singaporean company whose satellite is stationed above the archipelago in order to connect to the internet by satellite.
A supersonic wave that traveled the planet
Three people were killed and others injured when the Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, triggering a tsunami that destroyed homes and flooded.
A 65-year-old woman in Mango is one of three people confirmed dead, along with a 49-year-old man and British national Angela Glover.
Tonga's government called the disaster "
unprecedented
", saying waves up to 15 meters high destroyed all homes on some islands.
Taumoepeau, who was born in Australia but grew up in Tonga, said she has 'hundreds of close and extended family members in Tonga across multiple villages and towns.'
She has yet to have any contact with any of them since the volcanic eruption https://t.co/9uzKqqykHB pic.twitter.com/4haf6PylYr
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 18, 2022
The volcanic eruption, heard as far away as Alaska (USA), located more than 9000 km away, was the largest recorded in decades - a huge smoke mushroom 30 km high, which dispersed ash , gas and acid rain on the 170 islands of the archipelago.
This eruption caused a huge pressure wave that swept across the planet, traveling at a supersonic speed of around 1,231 kilometers per hour, according to New Zealand's National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research.
(With AFP)
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