French Polynesia will send, Friday, January 28, from Tahiti food, water and clothing to the Tonga Islands, bruised by a volcanic eruption, announced, Wednesday, January 26, the services of this overseas community. These assistance missions are complicated by Tonga’s refusal to contact the crews, in order to preserve this archipelago from Covid-19 which has not yet reached these remote islands in the South Pacific.
“I’m trying to get Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni to come down for an hour, but they didn’t make any exceptions for anyone,” declared to AFP Manuel Terai, delegate for international affairs of French Polynesia, and coordinator of this mission for the overseas community.
The departure of the ship Tahiti Nui is scheduled for Friday, with 120 drinking water tanks of 500 to 2,000 liters, the water in Tonga having been polluted by the fallout of ash. French Polynesia also delivers 210 tarpaulins intended to protect the roofs of houses, as well as chainsaws.
The local government has mobilized the Churches and the population for donations of food and clothing, for a total of a thousand cubic meters of freight, assured Manuel Terai. It will take four and a half days at sea in Tahiti Nui to reach Tonga from Tahiti. But this mission could be disrupted by a tropical depression expected on January 29 and by signs of another volcano waking up, in the Vanuatu islands.
A French patrol boat, the Arago, left Papeete on Friday with 40 tons of cargo on board for a scheduled arrival on January 29 in Tonga. In particular, it will deliver equipment to build emergency shelters (500 tents, ropes, tools), hygiene kits and solar lamps, as well as water and food rations.