Health risks for flooded homes at Kolomotu'a, warns town officer [1]
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - 20:18. Updated on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - 20:24.
With more unseasonal heavy rain falling today in Tongatapu, homes in low lying and swamp areas in Kolomotu’a were flooded. Sio Tuiano, the Kolomotu’a Town Officer who is concerned about the health risks of floodwaters contaminated with E.coli, said a few of the residents have taken shelter in an evacuation centre, but most people do not want to leave their homes.
The flooding is an ongoing problem that has been made worse by recent road construction and now with blocked drains.
Sio Tuiano said he coordinates with the National Emergency Management office (NEMO) to try and get assistance in the area. Since the record-breaking heavy rainfall in the weekend many low lying homes were flooded and a few families had no choice but to evacuate to the Kolomotu'a LDS church or to relatives’ homes to keep dry, he said.
Sio said one of his main concerns is that the level of water is above the septic tanks at some homes and it’s unsanitary because some tanks are leaking.
"I have asked the Ministry of Health to come and inspect these homes but no response - for over 30 hours now. I have now coordinated with NEMO Director Leveni ‘Aho to please use his power to contact them," he said today.
One father who refused to leave his house but was getting his family's belongings onto a higher place at their small house at Tongata'eapa was Fili Lomu (79) and his daughters.
His daughter ‘Ilaisaane said there are around eight of them altogether but her children and the others had gone to their relative's home at Vaololoa.
"My father does not want to leave, so we are just here getting our belongings together and to see if the water is going to subside," she said as she was standing with a mop and bucket. Her two young girls who had visited her from Vaololoa were also there.
Fili said he is used to the area’s flooding ever since he moved there but this is the worst he has seen with water coming into his house.
"Our area has always been flooded in the past but when it rained heavy water came down from the high ground and went to the sea. Now after the road construction it became higher, so when it rains we at the low lying side get all the water from the high ground," he said.
LDS Evacuation Centre
Meanwhile, two families, about 12 people in all, sheltered at the LDS church in the Kolomotu'a area, including Fakaofo and Lavinia Tu’itavuki who had been staying there since their house was flooded on Saturday, 11 June.
"Our house is right across the road and remains flooded with water so we have stacked up belongings while we stay here and wait this rain out," said Lavinia. "We will stay at the shelter until the water subsides".
Sio Tuiano said that the Hala'ovave area used to be under the sea in 1956, "and my father used to go fishing here."
The land settlement started in the 1960s attracting people from the outer islands and outer villages. Today the area is a heavily populated suburb of Nuku'alofa. "Some people put in gravel and coral fill, but the poor and the weak had no money to buy soil and gravel and they are now the worst affected," he said. The primary school in the area closed this year because the buildings were damaged and unsafe.
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