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ADB ANNOUNCES USD0.5 MILLION GRANT TO HELP TONGA IN RELIEF EFFORTS
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a USD500,000 (1.13 million pa’anga) grant to the Government of Tonga to help restore life-sustaining services following the extensive damage from an undersea volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami in Tonga and around the Pacific.
Tonga’s Minister of Finance and ADB Governor Tatafu Moeaki signed the grant agreement at a virtual signing ceremony on 10 February 2022. Director General for ADB’s Pacific Department (PARD) Leah Gutierrez and ADB project team members witnessed the event. The grant comes from ADB’s Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund and is in addition to the USD10 million quick-disbursing contingent grant financing that ADB provided to Tonga on 21 January 2022 for tsunami recovery.
“An estimated 84 percent of Tonga’s population was affected by this twin disaster,” said ADB Director General for the Pacific Leah Gutierrez. “This grant will help the government with its immediate relief efforts which are focused on the provision of food, nonfood items, including water containers, hygiene kits, and household items, and shelter; and clean-up of the ashfall.” The Minister of Finance, Hon Tatafu Moeaki said, “The Government of Tonga is very grateful to receive this assistance from ADB which will help Government to provide much needed aid to those families which were hard hit by the tsunami, especially those from the outer islands of Ha’apai and the western side of Tongatapu, including women and children.”
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano, located about 65 kilometers north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, erupted on 15 January, 2022 which produced an ash cloud that rose to 30 kilometers and launched an estimated one cubic kilometer of material into the atmosphere. Ashfall has impacted all Tonga’s island groups, resulting in buried crops, damaged public infrastructure and houses, and contaminated water supplies. The death toll remains at four. The Government of Tonga declared a state of emergency on 19 January, 2022
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