Urban water quality upgrade in Tonga

Urban effluent is a serious problem in the Lagoon behind Nuku'alofa Tonga. An Engineering solution has been suggested, but there are few resources to address the issue.

A continuing gap in the provision of training for skills, in small Pacific islands, is the architectural and engineering sector, for skills at diploma level for local provision.

A World Economic Forum (WEF) ‘The Future of Work’ Report dated Jan 2016, states ‘Our respondents expect strong employment growth across the Architecture and Engineering and Computer and Mathematical job families,’

Very recently an Architectural Technology Diploma course has been established at Tupou Tertiary Institute (TTI) in Nuku’alofa. It struggles a bit but is already providing graduates who readily find local work. Even though there has been some discussion, an Engineering Diploma is still not available. There are no Engineering based studies available at any of the Tertiary Institutions on Tonga. One hurdle is the severe shortage of people with the qualifications to teach such a course, which is indicative of the problem. 

Urban water pollution is a serious problem in the developing world. It needs Engineers, and as there are few local Engineers, support from the developed world would be of great help. This solution uses Engineers without borders or similar group to assist in designing remediation works.

Small group projects in the developing world are the way of getting localised projects going. The assistance of volunteers from developed countries is of great teaching benefit, and is a very cost effective way of delivering aid on the ground.

Lift the level of Engineering support from the Australian Aid program, to in time develop a local Engineering Diploma Course. Use a local project to not only solve a serious urban effluent problem, but provide a focus for discussion of general Engineering needs.

the design - Design for effluent flushing system

track the money - aid gets to developing world

visit by Engineers from Australia - connection with an Australian University to assist in Engineering projects

Tonga has no planning Act or planning instrument. Very inappropriate development is occurring on low lying land around the lagoon, susceptible to flooding and highly polluted. There is very little local expertise in Environmental and Urban Planning. This initiative begins a process of capacity development in these areas.

Cleaning up urban water areas will be of great benefit to the people on the edge of the lagoon, reducing risk of infection and improving the environment.

This proposal mainly benefits engineering capacity in Tonga. With more Engineers, buildings will be correctly designed to resist C3 cyclones (most are not at present) and many other infrastructure and regulatory benefits.

Tupou Tertiary Institute has research and administration team in place to coordinate a project of this type. Part of proposal is to move towards offering Engineering Diploma studies at TTI

This is an ongoing problem with no projects in place to resolve it at present.

Nothing will be done without support to increase local capacity.

As an Australian Volunteer invited to submit.

It is apparent that aid rarely gets through to the developing world in a way that helps those in need.

This would be a highly effective demonstration project to improve environmental conditions in an Urban water area.

Tupou Tertiary Institute is a college offering Diploma Level courses in Tonga.

None at present. This uses existing conventional Engineering design solutions.