Nuku'alofa's overflowing Tukutonga Rubbish Dump, an attraction for squatters and scavengers, will be finally closed in April when a new $12 million pa'’anga rubbish site, Tapuhia, at Vaini comes into operation after Easter.

Talita Helu of the Tonga Solid Waste Management Project said today that the opening of the Tapuhia Rubbish Dump was scheduled for February 2006 but due to the rainy weather and Cyclone Vaianu more work needed to be completed.

Talita said that at Tapuhia, incoming rubbish would be sorted and the dump would be better managed and controlled than the previous waterfront site. She said all rubbish will be sorted according to its type and blocks had been built to accommodate each type separately, and there are different blocks for businesses and personal rubbish.

"The good thing about Tapuhia is that rubbish will not be burnt like how it is being dealt with at Tukutonga, it will be demolished to bits by a machine and buried on a daily routine schedule so as to prevent any rubbish from being blown off by the wind," she said. It will be opened to the public from morning until 5pm in the evening so as to prevent littering and to allow disposal work to continue within the site.

The Tapuhia rubbish dump is a $12million pa'’anga project funded by the Australian Aid Agency AusAid in a construction contract that began in February 2004. The Government of Tonga jointly helps in the project with the Ministry of Works doing the construction.

The old Tukutonga dump on the Nuku'alofa waterfront has featured in several overseas news documentaries on Tonga where its squalid conditions have been used to contrast the images of the nearby "paradise islands" off shore.