Tonga's new rubbish tip Tapuhia, which was completed on August 18, can't be used because it has no management body in place to run it.

In the meantime, rubbish collection for Nuku'alofa, and for Tongatapu has become confused and unreliable after the Ministry of Health relinquished responsibility for collection on August 4.

Constructed at a cost of $12 million, the modern Tapuhia rubbish site was completed on August 18, but the official handing over of the site from the Australian government to a board to manage the Tonga Solid Waste Management Project has yet to take place because the Tongan Cabinet has not appointed a board.

Talita Helu of the Tonga Solid Waste Management Project said that Cabinet was informed on August 16 of the need for a management board, but as of August 22 a board had not been appointed.

Meanwhile, the old seafront Tukutonga site continues to be Tongatapu's rubbish dump. Rubbish collection for Nuku'alofa has been unreliable since June 30 when the Ministry of Health rubbish collectors were offered a redundancy package and the Ministry's only rubbish truck died. New rubbish collectors were hired and open trucks were used to collect the rubbish, until August 4 when rubbish collection was no longer the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. A private company, the Tonga Waste Management is taking over the responsibility.

Niu Fakakovikaetau of the Public Health Sector of the Ministry of Health said today, August 24, that the Ministry decided that it was best for a private company to take up the rubbish collecting service for the time being, until Tapuhia becomes operational and takes over from them.

But many households in Tongatapu and Nuku'alofa are still unsure who is responsible for their collections.

Niu said they have advised all rubbish rate-payers who had paid up until December 2006 that their payments had been transferred to the new rubbish collector, the Tonga Waste Management. However, he said that households who had paid up their rubbish collection to July, "will have to pay Tonga Waste Management to continue picking up their rubbish, with a new rubbish collection rate."

Tonga Waste Management has two compacting rubbish trucks and three flat-deck trucks that are currently picking up the rubbish throughout Tongatapu.