By Tupou Vaipulu Jr.

Sixty New Zealand soldiers working at Lifuka, Ha’apai, were joined by ten army personnel from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Japan and New Caledonia, on their annual mission to offer humanitarian aid and disaster relief to Pacific Islands countries.

Exercise ‘Tropic Twilight’, has spent five weeks in building and construction work for local communities in Ha’apai. In addition to construction services, the NZDF has a team of six dentists working with local dentists to provide hygiene and dental services to the people of Ha'apai.

The annual Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade-funded Exercise Tropic Twilight was held in Tonga for the second year in a row to support the recovery from the 2022 Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha’apai eruption. The exercise has previously assisted communities on the main island of Tongatapu.

This year the work covered four main sites; the Ha’ateiho Community Centre, the Meteorological Centre, Pangai Government Primary School and Koulo Government Primary School.

Matangi Tonga had the opportunity to tour the Ha'apai sites yesterday, 20 May 2024, to view the hard work that the NZDF has done to aid the struggling locals at Ha’apai, prepare for future natural disasters.

Ha'ateiho Si'i Community Centre

The exercise helped upgrade the architecture of an old community centre at Ha’ateiho Si’i, one of the focal projects of the exercise. This include the installment of storm shutters around the building to increase its capability to withstand cyclones and high winds, and to install a kitchen area, new doors, knobs and more.

Two new toilets were installed.  Lepa, a local lady who sheltered in the centre, told Matangi Tongam the toilet block is the most important new feature of the centre for the community.

“At the time the volcano erupted, this centre was a safe haven for most of the people here at Ha’ateiho Si’i –even some of the neighboring villages found safety here” she said.

“What they’re doing is very important especially the installment of the bathrooms –before, we used Toileti Tonga and now we have proper toilets”.

Toileti Tonga (Pit Latrine) is a type of toilet that is built directly above a hole in the ground. It has no plumbing, pipes or a water system and it collects human waste in the pit below it. She explained that it was very difficult to use the toeleti tonga at the time of the eruption, because of how unsanitary it was, "especially when COVID hit."

GPS Pangai

The NZDF built a new playground for the Government Primary School of Pangai, using mostly recycled materials from the old playground.

They replaced the hardware of the school bathrooms, added new hand rails, toilets, seats and repainted the doors.

They will also install new spoutings, which will lead to three new water tanks they've installed at the school to supplement older water tanks.

Lance Corporal Hugh Matthewman from the NZDF said that this will improve the sanitary standards of the school, for the students and the teachers.

GPS Pangai ranges from classes one to six and provides for around 80 students.

Ha'apai Meteorological Building

NZDF focused on basic survivability needs when it came to the Meteorological Building and ensuring that the location was capable of sustaining operations 24/7 during any disaster.

To do this NZDF installed a new water tank, which helped to improve the water collection system. "So that they have the water needed during and after the disaster" said NZDF's Major James Brosnan.

They also conducted a "full re-roof" and installed storm shutters on to the building to make it more weatherproof for the person operating inside during the disaster.

The exercise also saw other small projects including the installment of hand railings to one community centre in Holopeka.

This is their last week of construction and providing medical and dental services before they pack up and return to their homes.

Meanwhile, an NZDF dental team saw almost 200 patients, performing fillings, extractions, root canal treatments and hygiene appointments, working with field kits out of the old hospital on Lifuka.