Results for Environment

Just as we are getting used to Consumption Tax, the Ministry of Finance is proposing a new tax, the "Plas Tax" they hope will raise the awareness of litter as an issue in Tonga.

Heavy rain fell over Tongatapu last night and early this morning causing flooding in many areas and early closure of schools for the day.

Dozens of volunteers who went out last weekend as part of the Clean Up the World Day, believe that Tonga needs to clean up its act because there is an awful lot more rubbish out there to pick up - they were overwhelmed by it and some groups ran out of bags.

Tackling the problem of mindless littering, this weekend 16-18 September, more than 500 volunteers from Tongatapu youth groups will clean up beaches and villages in Houma, Hoi, 'Anana, Ha'ateiho, Veitongo, Vaini, Holonga, Kolonga, Lapaha, Lavengatonga and Navutoka. In other island groups 10 youth groups will clean up Ha'apai, 'Eua, and Vava'u villages as part of an international coastal cleanup called "Clean Up the World".

A tornado struck the centre of the village of Ha'alalo in central Tongatapu on Saturday, August 21, lifting the roof of the village hall, destroying a home with a mother and two children inside, hitting a primary school, knocking out the local kava club house, and damaging trees.

An $8-million project to construct a new rubbish dump for Tongatapu was officially launched at the Dateline Hotel, Nuku'alofa on April 8.

The Tongan government has stopped the removal of sand from all beaches in Tongatapu, excepting Laulea Beach.

It was a miserable grey Christmas for the residents of Popua and Fangaloto areas of eastern Nuku'alofa, when they woke up on Christmas morning in a choking cloud of smoke.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES, NOVEMBER 2002: When Paul Taylor visits Tonga, he may be rather hoping there will be an earthquake. But he can be forgiven, because he is a volcanologist, from Australia, who studies the activity of volcanoes in the South Pacific, and particularly Tonga, where earthquakes often signal the emergence of interesting new volcanic islands. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 3, November 2002.