Editor,
With reference to your article on Nautilus Minerals exploration of Tonga's seabed, I agree with Tama Foa's letter.
Can the Tongan people or at least their People's Representatives in parliament request authorities to make public if any studies such as Environment Impact Assessments were done and if so, can the MPs have a look at these studies, if the general public cannot have access to such information.
Parts of the Ok Tedi, Fly and Strickland rivers (to name a few) in Papua New Guinea's west are severely afftected by the tailings from the mining activities carried out in that part of the country. When these rivers are affected, the communities that depend on the rivers and areas along these stretches suffer, because their health and lives are affected as their food is contaminated, contaminants are in the soil, in the water, it washes all the way down stream etc - and this is in a single province in PNG that is over a hundred times bigger than tiny Tonga.
I shudder to think of the scenario where the seabed is dead from the disturbance, and the land is dead from waste - Tonga will not have worry about drowning when the climate becomes warmer and the sea level rises, it'll just bury itself under the waste from mining (if deposits are found) and the rubble of its own greed.
People's Representatives for 2008, are you listening.
Tupou Taiamoni Finau
tupousolo [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] au
