Questions have been asked in the Tonga Legislature about the lack of progress in relocating and rehousing the hundreds of people made homeless by the January eruption and tsunami.
The Tonga Government had committed to building more than 300 houses, creating new villages, rebuilding roads, not only for the most recent victims but the people still suffering in the wake of devastating cyclones in 2014 and 2018.
Photo: Twitter / Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau
Our correspondent in Tonga, Kalafi Moala, says the government had planned to relocate four entire villages wiped out by the tsunami, but the work to house thousands of victims from Cyclones Ian in 2014 and Gita in 2018 are incomplete.
"There are people, since January of this year, that have been living in temporary quarters, whether it's in the hallway of a church or in tents. they are living there with their families, their children, having been promised that they will be relocated, that here will be new homes built for them. And that hasn't happened."
The worst hit area has been Ha'apai, which bore the brunt of Ian in 2014, was smashed by Gita in 2018 and was the epicentre of the eruption and tsunami.
"So they have been deeply affected by those two cyclones before as well as the eruption and tsunami. The question is some of the reconstruction that has started for restoring damages from Cyclone Ian - they haven't been finished and even from Cyclone Gita and now there is a third disaster that has happened."
Moala said there have been accusations of corruption with a number of the companies that lined up for the funding provided for the reconstruction work, having folded.