Tongan diplomat seeks solution to sand shortage [1]
Monday, December 13, 2021 - 21:25. Updated on Monday, December 13, 2021 - 21:33.
By Pesi Fonua
Tonga's critical shortage of sand for construction purposes has motivated a local man to find an alternative source of fine aggregate. Viliami Lolohea is currently building a small house at Fangaloto, trialling bricks made with imported slag and cement.
Last Friday, 10 December, King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau'u visited the building site to view the foundations of the concrete block house.
The three-bedroom house will be the first to be constructed locally with cement and slag. The bricks are made with cement and Ferronickel slag imported to Tonga from New Caledonia.
Ferronickel slag is a by-product of nickel production that is used as an alternative to sand. It is considered as a promising alternative in the production of green concrete for structural applications.
Viliami said slag bricks caught his attention in 2016 when he attended a workshop in New Caledonia on the impact of natural disasters such as flooding, and sand erosion on most Pacific Island countries. He was surprised to find out that New Caledonia was making bricks with slag.
At the time, Viliami was working at the Department of Immigration in Nuku'alofa, but now he is the First Secretary of the Tongan High Commission in London.
Viliami said that since then he has been looking for a building solution for Tonga that he called "a house for the poor".
He founded a society called the Royal Lalanga Fononga, registered in Cyprus, with himself as President and an international board, including Joseph Borghese (Cyprus), Bart Doornbos (Netherlands), Pelenise Alofa (Kiribati) and Aliena Lolohea (Netherlands/Tonga). (Mr Borghese is the Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Tonga to the Republic of Cyprus).
The depletion of sand in Tonga became a major concern in 2016 with increasing demands for sand for customary burials, for buildings and road construction, and with increasing erosion.
In 2016 a Land (Removal of Sand) Regulation was introduced requiring a permit to be signed by the Minister of Land to dredge sand from Crown land or any other holding. Although it is an offence to dredge sand without a permit it was difficult to enforce because the restriction was introduced without a viable alternative for sand.
The Royal Lalanga Fononga, styled as “an International NGO for the Pacific” made their first order of 40 tons of ferronickel slag from New Caledonia last year.
A small private company called MOT Enterprise of Ma’ufanga was engaged to produce slag bricks for the first house to be constructed in Tonga with the material. However at the moment their slag bricks production has stalled because of a delay in the import of cement, and a major increase in the price of cement.
The small house-building project in Tonga is under the management of the James Architect with Semisi Fifita and Mosese Vakalahi. They expected construction carried out by the Maka Siale Construction to be completed by February.
Meanwhile, the Royal Lalanga Fononga brochure stated that New Caledonia and Tonga were planning to submit a funding proposal to “Pacific Funds 2021” for a feasibility study to provide slag as a substitute for sand for climate change adaptation and community projects. They stated that Kirbati and Tuvalu had also registered interests.
Viliami said he had been invited by Tuvalu to present their proposals at the Dubai World Expo this year.
Next year they are planning proposals to conduct feasibility studies for the use of slag in other projects such as land reclamation, foreshores and airports.