The Tonga Government urgently needs new workers to replace its rubbish collectors who have taken their redundancy package and gone home.

Rubbish has been piling up on roadsides since last Friday when the government rubbish collection service for Nuku'alofa, came to a sudden end after street sweepers and rubbish collectors accepted the government's redundancy package and went home. Then, whether it was by design or by default, Nuku'alofa's one and only rubbish truck died on the same day.

Niu Fakakovikaetau of the Public Health Sector of the Ministry of Health said today that the Minister of Health, Dr Villiami Tangi had instructed them to hire trucks and new labourers in order to start picking-up rubbish bins. There is also a lot of rubbish lying around down-town Nuku'alofa after the king's birthday celebration of the past few days.

Niu said that it was questionable if the old rubbish truck could be fixed, - it needs parts - and if a spare part could not be found then they will have to buy a new rubbish truck.

"But until then we will use the alternative of hiring trucks to do the rubbish collecting, until August when the Ministry of Health will hand over the control of the rubbish dump to the Tonga Solid Waste Management Project when it relocates from Tukutonga in Popua to Tapuhia at Vaini village," explained Niu.