Tongatapu

St Falakiko ‘Asisi Primary School was awarded the best overall school.

Hilliard Memorial School settled in second place and Government Primary School Ngele’ia came in third.

Students competed in written, oral and flash examinations. 

Winners of each category for classes 3, 4 and 5 were awarded prizes, at the Free Church of Tonga Hall in Kapeta.

The next district competitions are the eastern and western districts of Tongatapu this month.

The competition was held in Ha’apai and Vava’u last month.

The nursery is aimed at catering for the planting of rainforest trees and meeting the conservation needs of the forest under the GEF6 project.

Unit head Viliami Hakaumotu said the repairs will be completed next week.

Plant seedlings will be planted in the nursery before they are transferred to the forest.

This project is under Tonga’s Department of Environment.

The discovery was made during the survey that was completed last week.

Research shows that some E-coli can cause illnesses such as watery diarrhoea or dysentery through contaminated water or food.

National Project Coordinator, Silia Ledger said they decided to run bacteriological testing of the water from some houses while doing the survey.

“We did not expect the water tests would find E-coli present,” she said.

When the severe cyclone hit, it coincided with a king tide, which caused considerable coastal damage.

The chief executive of the National Emergency Management Office, Paula Ma'u, said on 'Eua this wrecked a number of houses and offices and also eroded a graveyard.

He said some of the bodies had been recovered but others had been swept out to sea.

Mr Ma'u said people whose homes were inundated on 'Eua and also around Tongatapu's Fanga'uta Lagoon, had been rehoused in tents and supplied with kitchen equipment.

A public notice has been issued inviting all those who are interested to be part of the discussions, to attend and give their views to the consultation team.

The bridge is planned to be constructed from Umusi to Folaha, crossing the Fanga'uta Lagoon.

The Department of Environment aims to sustain the lagoon and restore its environment to what it used to be.

Consultations will continue tomorrow till Tuesday next week and community members and their leaders have been advised to attend the consultations as follows:

Land Information New Zealand's Stuart Caie said the work means large cruise ships will soon be able to visit.

He said it will be combined with other recent data to provide electronic maps of Tonga's three main groups.

Mr Caie said the data for Ha'apai will allow updated charts and data needed for modern navigation systems.

A number of schools on Tongatapu, badly battered by Cyclone Gita in February last year, are still waiting on repairs to be done.

Government spokesman, Lopeti Senituli, told RNZ Pacific last week that the delays were not the fault of the government but the World Bank and other multilateral agencies.

Now the government, in a statement, said the funds for school reconstruction are administered by the government, in accordance with World Bank policies.

Funding of approximately $US13.81 million is available for the rebuild of 30 schools.

It is understood a family member was travelling from Auckland to Tonga to join the family there at “this very difficult time.”

Kaniva News reports the search for the 24-year-old had been called off after he was presumed drowned following an attempt to rescue his wife at one of Tonga’s most dangerous places to go swimming.

Police divers’ search had been stopped on December 27 but the family continued searching until this week, Police reportedly said.

The wife of the deceased and another man, who helped in the attempts to save her life, were rescued.

The man, 51, was found dead at a bush allotment in Pelehake on Saturday, September 29.

Kaniva News reports a 70-year-old woman was found dead at her home where she lived alone in Hoi on Sunday, September 30.

The circumstances surrounding their deaths were not believed to be suspicious, according to reports.

Pitikeni and Tupou Fungavaka and their two young sons aged three and one lost all their belongings.

Pitikeni told Kaniva News he was thankful no one was killed in the fire.

The blaze erupted and destroyed the house on Wednesday at around 3.30pm, he said.

Fire fighters were at the scene.

Pitikeni said he was at work when he received  a text message saying his house was on fire.

He posted a message on Facebook with a screenshot of the text message.

“This is the message I will never ever forget,” he wrote in Tongan.