By Katalina Siasau
Piles of electronic and solid industrial wastes along the streets in Ma’ufanga, have been an eyesore for over five weeks now. Families who thought they were cleaning out their properties ahead of the festive season have spent Christmas and New Year surrounded by trash - and there's no easy fix.
Residents in Ma'ufanga are complaining after they put out solid waste onto the street in the first week of December, and it has not been collected since.
The affected part of Ma'ufanga comes under the constituency of Tongatapu 4, whose office told Matangi Tonga on 9 January that people were “confused” with another district's pick-up schedule.
Tongatapu 4 district office said they had not announced a pick-up schedule with the villages under their constituency.
"There has been a misunderstanding with the waste pick-up schedule, apparently it was Tongatapu 3 who announced they will be picking up the large wastes in December."
The spokesperson said they had contact with the Waste Authority, but unfortunately they said they would have to wait another two weeks from now, until they finished the wastes pickup of Tongatapu 3.
An officer from the Tapuhia Landfill told Matangi Tonga on 9 January that they were still handling the larges piles of wastes from Tongatapu 3, and would finish that before they could allow any other waste to be transferred to Tapuhia.
Tongatapu' chronic waste problem has been an issue for decades. Littering of the coastlines and scenic areas is also an ongoing issue and it seems there's no easy fix.
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See also: 7 February 2020 Plastic waste growing rapidly in Tongatapu
https://matangitonga.to/2020/02/07/plastic-waste-growing-rapidly-tongatapu
