Tonga’s cabinet has approved $21.45 million from the TC Gita Relief Account and $2million from the Emergency Fund to be allocated towards clusters managing emergency services for cyclone recovery after Tropical Cyclone Gita struck Tonga a month ago.

$5.8million was allocated for the Shelter Cluster, $3.8million for the Education Cluster, $2.4 million for the WASH Cluster, $1.3million for the Food and Security Cluster, $200,000 for the Communications Cluster and $7.7million for Essential Services including the Electricity Network.

Each Cluster will be responsible for using and budgeting their allocated funds.

National Emergency Management Office (NEMO) Director, Leveni ‘Aho said the allocations are an estimate only and they are still working on allocating more funds especially since more aid is still coming in.

“So you’ll find in the next week or two that we may get another million or two or more than that. This is as close as we can get.”

He said that not all aid pledged from other countries have been received to date.

“The $2million from the Emergency Fund is readily available and is activated during an emergency. We will use it now and then when the pledges come in, we will return the $2million for future emergencies.”

He added that there is a delay in the pledged funds arriving in Tonga so the country has to start working towards cyclone recovery with what they can manage until aid arrives.

Aid for damage in the Ha’apai southern islands that were affected by Cyclone Gita will fall under the Food and Security Cluster.

“It will be up to the Food and Security Cluster to see what level of assistance Ha’apai needs,” he said.