Nuku'alofa reconstruction to start in September [1]
Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 16:49. Updated on Monday, July 20, 2015 - 12:12.
The reconstruction of Nuku'alofa will be launched on September 28, with a ground-breaking ceremony by King George Tupou V.
Dr Nailasikau Halatu'itu'ia, the Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Lands, Survey, Natural Resources and Environment said that by then a town plan should have been agree upon.
In May following a consultation meeting with the stakeholders certain guidelines will be established for things such as the width of the roads, and possible building plans options.
Dr Nailasikau said yesterday that a newly established Planning and Urban Management Unit is responsible for incorporating several Nuku'alofa town plans that have been submitted to government, including the one from the Manukau City Council town planners.
The boundaries of the actual Nuku'alofa Central Business District area, he said had not been officially established but what the Planning and Urban Management Unit has done was dividing up the CBD into blocks, "one block is from the O. G Sanft and all that area, so that when we say that we are working on such a block, everyone knows where we are."
Involving youth
Nailasikau said that the launching of a Primary and Secondary schools drawing competition of a reconstructed Nuku'alofa is an effort by the Planning and Urban Management Unit to involve school children in the rebuilding of "their capital".
The drawing competition is supported by the Japan International Co-operation Agency with a contribution of 250 t-shirts as prizes. JICA has appointed Ms Yukiko Kaneko, a Fine Arts teacher at 'Ahopanilolo to be one of the judges of the competition.
Tonga's new generation imagines a new future, Christopher builds a "fale fungavaka" or high-rise building, on his great-grandmother's fruit stall at Fatai. Photo by Chris Egan.