This handout photo taken on Jan 17, 2022 and received on Jan 18 from the New Zealand Defense Force shows crew on a P-3K2 Orion aircraft surveying an area in Tonga, after the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga – Hunga-Haa'pai volcano on Jan 15. (HANDOUT / NEW ZEALAND DEFENSE FORCE / AFP)
Two New Zealand navy vessels will arrive in Tonga on Friday carrying critical water supplies for the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami and largely cut off from the outside world.
Hundreds of homes in Tonga's smaller outer islands have been destroyed, with at least three deaths after Saturday's huge eruption triggered tsunami waves that rolled over the islands, causing what the government calls an unprecedented disaster.
With the nation's airport smothered by volcanic ash and communications badly hampered by the severing of an undersea cable, information on the scale of devastation has come mostly from reconnaissance aircraft.
Securing access to safe drinking water is a critical immediate priority… as there is a mounting risk of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.
Katie Greenwood, the Pacific head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The Red Cross said its teams in Tonga had confirmed that salt water from the tsunami and volcanic ash were polluting the drinking water sources of tens of thousands of people.
"Securing access to safe drinking water is a critical immediate priority… as there is a mounting risk of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea," Katie Greenwood, the Pacific head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said in a statement.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted with a blast heard 2,300 km away in New Zealand and sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean.
ALSO READ: Tsunami-hit Tonga islands suffered huge damage, more deaths feared
James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said the force of the eruption was estimated to be equivalent to five to 10 megatons of TNT, an explosive force more than 500 times the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War Two.
New Zealand's foreign ministry said Tonga had approved the arrival of HMNZS Aotearoa and the HMNZS Wellington in the COVID-free nation, where concerns about a potential coronavirus outbreak are likely to complicate relief efforts.
In this photo provided by the New Zealand Defense Force, volcanic ash covers roof tops and vegetation in an area of Tonga on Jan 17, 2022. (CPL VANESSA PARKER / NZDF VIA AP)
Simon Griffiths, captain of the Aotearoa, said his ship was carrying 250,000 liters of water, and had the capacity to produce another 70,000 liters a day, along with other supplies.
Simon Griffiths, captain of the Aotearoa, said his ship was carrying 250,000 liters of water, and had the capacity to produce another 70,000 liters a day, along with other supplies
"For the people of Tonga, we're heading their way now with a whole lot of water," Griffiths said in a release.
Other countries and agencies including the United Nations are drawing up plans to help.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said it would send help, including water and food, when the archipelago's main Fua'amotu International Airport reopens. It was not damaged but was covered in ash, which has to be cleared manually,
ALSO READ: Tsunami hits Tonga after underwater volcano erupts
"We thought that it would be operational yesterday, but it hasn't been fully cleared yet because more ash has been falling," Fiji-based UN co-ordinator Jonathan Veitch said on Wednesday.
Pacific neighbour Fiji will send defense engineers on Australia's HMAS Adelaide, which is due to set sail from Brisbane for Tonga on Friday, a Fiji military spokesman told a briefing in Suva.
This combination of the satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, shows Niutoua in Tongatapu, Tonga on Jan 9, 2021 (top) and on Jan 17, 2022, after the Jan 15 eruption. (PLANET LABS PBC VIA AP)
Clean-up
Waves reaching up to 15 metres hit the outer Ha'apia island group, destroying all of the houses on the island of Mango, as well as the west coast of Tonga's main island, Tongatapu, the prime minister's office said.
New Zealand said power has now been restored, and clean-up and damage assessments were going on and Tongan authorities were distributing relief supplies
On the west coast of Tongatapu, residents were being moved to evacuation centres as 56 houses were destroyed or seriously damaged on that coast.
New Zealand said power has now been restored, and clean-up and damage assessments were going on and Tongan authorities were distributing relief supplies.
ALSO READ: Australia, NZ step up efforts to aid tsunami-hit Tonga
Australia and New Zealand have promised immediate financial assistance. The US Agency for International Development approved $100,000 in immediate assistance to support people affected by volcanic eruptions and tsunami waves.
The Asian Development Bank was discussing with Tonga whether it would declare a state of emergency to draw on a $10 million disaster funding facility, senior bank official Emma Veve told Reuters.
Tonga is still largely offline after the volcano severed the sole undersea fiber-optics communication cable.
In this photo provided by the New Zealand Defense Force, Air Movements personnel stack and secure pallets of disaster relief supplies at an airbase in Auckland, New Zealand on Jan 17, 2022, to be sent to Tonga in the wake of a Tsunami triggered by volcanic eruption. (DILLION ROBERT ANDERSON / NZDF VIA AP)
International mobile phone network provider Digicel has set up an interim system on Tongatapu using the University of South Pacific's satellite dish, the New Zealand foreign ministry said.
ALSO READ: Concerns mount for Tonga after tsunami triggered by eruption
That would allow a 2G connection to be established but the connection is patchy and amounts to about 10 percent of usual capacity,
Aid agencies, including the United Nations, are preparing to send relief flights to Tonga but without personnel who disembark to avoid introducing the coronavirus, said Fiji-based UN co-ordinator Jonathan Veitch
US cable company SubCom has advised it will take at least four weeks for Tonga's cable be repaired, it added.
Remote aid
Tongan communities abroad have posted images from families on Facebook, giving a glimpse of the devastation, with homes reduced to rubble, fallen trees, cracked roads and sidewalks and everything coated with grey ash.
Aid agencies, including the United Nations, are preparing to send relief flights to Tonga but without personnel who disembark to avoid introducing the coronavirus, Veitch said.
Tonga is one of the few countries that is COVID-19 free and an outbreak there would be disastrous, he said.
READ MORE: Tonga has had no COVID-19 infection, until now
"They've been very cautious about opening their borders like many Pacific islands, and that's because of the history of disease outbreaks in the Pacific which has wiped out societies here," Veitch told a briefing.