The first flights with emergency humanitarian aid arrived in Tonga on Thursday (20), five days after the volcanic eruption and tsunami that devastated this Pacific archipelago and cut it off from the rest of the world.
Tonga has been inaccessible since Saturday, when one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in decades covered the territory with ash, triggered a tsunami that ripped through much of the Pacific and cut undersea communications cables.
Two large Australian and New Zealand military transport planes landed at Tonga’s main airport after cleaning the runway.
“It has landed!” exclaimed Australian Minister for International Development and Pacific Relations Officer Zed Seselja, when the C-17 plane arrived “carrying a lot of humanitarian supplies”.
“A second C-17 is on its way,” he added.
New Zealand confirmed that its Hercules C-130 also landed in Tonga.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the aircraft was carrying water, equipment for temporary shelters, electrical generators, hygiene and communication items.
Japan has also announced that it will send two C-130 planes with assistance, and other countries such as China and France have announced their willingness to help.
However, the strict anti-covid protocols that have kept the archipelago free from contagion require that shipments be delivered contactless.
More than 80% of Tonga’s 100,000 people were affected by the disaster, according to the UN, and clean water is one of the most urgent needs, as ash from the volcanic eruption has contaminated the archipelago’s reserves.
Due to the disaster, news from the country has been very limited since Saturday and the damage toll is inaccurate.
At the moment, three deaths have been confirmed by the eruption and the tsunami, whose waves reached the coasts of Chile and the United States.
In Peru, it caused the death of two women and a spill of 6,000 barrels of oil, affecting the flora and fauna of the coast of the province of Callao.
– Ships on the way –
In Tonga, work over the last few days has focused on clearing the runway at the international airport to allow planes to land with humanitarian aid.
United Nations crisis coordinator Jonathan Veitch told AFP late on Wednesday that the main island’s airport runway, which was covered in a layer of 5 to 10 centimeters of ash, was already operational.
Dust particles can be poisonous and also pose a danger to aircraft as they can build up in your engines and cause them to malfunction.
The government of Tonga said the natural phenomenon caused “an unprecedented disaster”, with waves reaching 15 meters high and destroying countless villages on islands near the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano.
“The water supply in Tonga was severely affected by the ash and salt water from the tsunami,” said Katie Greenwood of the International Federation of the Red Cross, warning of the risk of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.
In addition to air shipments, both Australia and New Zealand sent to the archipelago two military ships with water reserves and a desalination plant capable of filtering 70,000 liters per day. Your arrival is scheduled for Friday.
The president of the Tonga Assembly, Fatafehi Fakafanua, tearfully assured that “all agriculture is ruined”.
The eruption was one of the most powerful in decades, releasing a pressure wave that ripped through the planet at a supersonic speed of 1,230 kilometers per hour, New Zealand’s National Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Research said.
Although internal communications in the country have been partially re-established, the connection with the outside may remain interrupted for a long time because the repair of the ruptured submarine cable will take at least four weeks.
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