Picking Up On a Tune

TONGA: When the sound of music fills the streets of Nuku'alofa, people know there's no time to waste.

The sound of a jaunty tune moving along the backstreets of Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, brings people rushing to their front gates. No, it's not an icecream van - it's the rubbish truck!

The household rubbish collection, part of the Tonga Solid Waste Management Project, comes round once a week.

'As soon as everyone hears the music they bring out their rubbish,' says community waste specialist Sonia Chirgwin. 'People don't leave bags sitting outside, especially if they contain food scraps, because they attract scavengers. Wild dogs and pigs are a problem.'

Once they've completed their rounds the rubbish trucks, which are specially designed for Nuku'alofa's narrow streets, return to a new world-class solid waste facility. Tapuhia Landfill is a far cry from the previous disorderly dump at Popua - a mangrove swamp infested with mosquitoes, rats and pigs.

The new modern set-up is a former quarry divided into discrete cells double-lined to prevent waste material leaching into the water table. Once one cell is full it's carefully covered over and the next one is opened. The days of thoughtless dumping of rubbish are definitely over.

Tongans are no longer even allowed to enter the landfill area. They must instead place any rubbish not collected by the trucks in large yellow steel bins at the public 'transfer station'. When full these bins are taken by a wheel loader to the disposal area where the contents are compacted and covered with soil. 'The landfill area is very well managed and we're keeping health and environmental risks to an absolute minimum. For example, we test the water supply through several bore holes once a month to make sure there is no contamination.'

An extensive recycling campaign is also gathering momentum. Special collecting cages managed by community groups are dotted around the city and surrounding villages. Aluminium cans are returned to recyclers overseas while glass is crushed for use in concrete aggregate. 'We're finding people are only too happy to recycle if it's made easy for them.'

Efforts to educate people about recycling and the hygienic disposal of rubbish are really beginning to pay off. Involving school-children through competitions such as designing a logo or coming up with a slogan has been a great idea. 'Everybody is getting behind the recycling campaign and making sure rubbish goes in bins and is not left on the ground,' says Chirgwin. 'We're all getting the message that we must take better care of our environment.' And that's music to everyone's ears.

The first waste collection service in Tonga's history is servicing 65,000 people in 16,000 individual households on the main island of Tongatapu. The governments of Tonga and Australia are funding the Tonga Solid Waste Management Project at a cost of $9.02 million. Women's groups in Nuku'alofa and outlying villages collect a small monthly fee from each household to cover basic costs. This will ensure the collection service is sustainable.

Above: Youngsters follow the rubbish truck - Pied Piper style - as it winds its way through the backstreets of Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa. Photo: Cathy Reid/AusAID

This and other stories can be found in AusAID's Focus Magazine.

2007