2:15 AM |
Appealing for homeless Tongan tsunami victims
www.tonganz.org reports a fresh appeal for the displaced – and
overlooked? - population of Niuatoputapu, many still without temporary
let along permanent shelter says Tongan Advisory Council chair Melino
Maka..
The shelter need remains 60 days after the tsunami of 30 September
killed nine Tongans and destroyed 79 buildings in the isolated
northern Tongan island near to Samoa he said in announcing a fresh
attempt to get attention – in the face of public focus on Samoa's own
real needs.
In the first of a week of www.tonganz.org special reports to focus on
the disaster that hit Niua, he recalled how the New Zealand government
aid agency NZAID had said in the first 30 days after the waves struck
they awaited a Tongan government request for housing reconstruction.
But Niua people think that is not good enough, he said, citing the
comments of a priest who has just been to the ravaged Island.
"Why wait? Our people are desperate and longing for help" says Fr
Mateo Kivalu, just back to Wellington from Niuatoputapu.
Archdiocese of Wellington priest Father Mateo Kivalu said 60 days
after the wave struck his people are impatient to see action.
The Tongan government and its partners has left him and isolated Niua
people confused.
Mr Maka said that with the help of Asia Pacific Economic News NZ
Parliamentary Press gallery correspondent Anthony Haas, the web site
was preparing a week of fresh reports from Niua and places influencing
it.
Here is a taste of what is to come on www.tonganz.org – and about
which fresh comment is being sought said Mr Haas, Fr Mateo and Mr
Maka.
Dilemmas and choices facing Niua Tongan tsunami victims
Wellingtonian Fr Mateo told a Nov 1 2009 meeting on tsunami ravaged
Niuatoputapu he saw contradiction between three voices of the Tongan
government – and back in Wellington relatives are calling for
"action".
The Kingdom of Tonga and its friends face dilemmas.
Fr Mateo, Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Wellington covering
Tongan communities at the top of the South Island and bottom of the
North Island spent November in his home island of Niuatoputapu (Niua),
and Tongatapu, to do what he could for his people. His uncle had died
in the September 30 tsunami that killed nine Tongans in three villages
of the northern Tongan island, near to Samoa, which had been hit even
harder by the rogue waves.
Temporary shelter after Niua's tsunami relief
Fr Mateo Kivalu's Uncle Sililo wants to stay put in Hihifo. "I've
never built a house" the priest who has spent five years ministering
to Marlborough and Wellington Tongans says. Nevertheless during his
November visit to Niua to see what he could do to help; he set to with
his family - and created a shelter of corrugated iron and wood
salvaged from destroyed houses.
The approximately 12 square metre shelter or little house known in
Tongan as fakahekeheke, has a dirt floor and no windows - but does
have a door for entrance and another for access to a kitchen.
However, either a kitchen – or even an outside toilet have yet been
built. What discomfort and sickness will the inhabitants face?
The permanent house dream for Niua residents
What is happening to help Niua people achieve their permanent home
dreams?
Fr Mateo Kivalu calls for a non-government organisation (ngo) effort
to get houses rebuilt for people in the three Niua villages of Hihifo,
Falehau and Vaipoa.
Now back in Wellington in the run up to Christmas the priest who went
to Niua to see what he could do to help wants to get appropriate
houses and community spaces designed.
Niua's dilemma posed by Tongan land rights
It is not easy for Wellington based Fr Mateo Kivalu to clearly
anticipate what follows Tongan government indications land higher
above the beach, inland, can be provided for displaced Niua residents.
The Ma'atu land behind Hihifo, the village most seriously affected by
the September 30 waves, is now distributed to absentee and other land
users. So what land can be available for which people directly and
indirectly affected by the waves?
Dilemmas for Haukinima as Tongan Government representative
Peau Haukinima was the Niuatoputapu MP until the last election – and
acted as Tongan government representative during Fr Mateo's November
visit.
Mr Haukinima's job is to be spokesman of the government. Information
is meant to come through him to the people Fr Mateo said after several
weeks in Niua.
Fr Mateo tells of local reports that Mr Haukinima said ten days after
the waves struck that the Tongan government wanted Niuatoputapu people
to re-establish houses up the hill. Fr Mateo could not report, when
he returned to Wellington at the end of November, what had been done
to achieve this policy.
Fr Mateo as shelter builder
Wellington based Fr Mateo had never built before.
But on his two week November visit to Niua to meet relatives, friends
and strangers in need, he built a shelter less than eight –ten feet
square in most seriously harmed Hihifo village.
This house was for Simione Hami, brother of Salote, and a 14 year old
niece.
Walls were made of tin from destroyed roofs. Framing timber was also
salvaged from destroyed houses. Fr Mateo was pleased he could help
build something from nothing.
The floor was soil and grass. There were no windows. There are two
doors. One goes into the house. One is to the kitchen. "But we
never built the kitchen." "For my uncle I built a similar shelter" he
says.
I want to build a decent home – more than a house – where there are
three or four bedrooms, lounge, with bathroom and toilet outside the
house.
"I want to build that home on their existing piece of land, or
wherever they want it to be built" Fr Mateo said as he prepared to
follow up his mission to Niua.
What happened?
At approximately 1848 GMT on 30 September 2009, an 8.3 magnitude
earthquake located at 15.3 South and 171 West at a depth of 33 kms
between Tonga and Samoa, triggered the first tsunami ever to hit
Tonga
"The immediate response operation as Phase I of the entire relief
arrangement operates as one team with one goal – to provide most
effective and timely relief operation for the people of Niuatoputapu.
The recovery and reconstruction phases would follow" the authors of
the initial Tongan government report said.
Find out more from:
melino@tapanz.com 027 563 5466
ahaas@decisionmaker.co.nz 027 242 2301
fr_mateo.kivalu@paradise.net.nz 0274787189
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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