The Tonga government is planning to convert seawater into drinking water for the outer islands during the current drought caused by El Niño conditions across the southern region of the Pacific.
The Prime Minister, Hon, Hu’akavameiliku said on Friday that the drought season is a pressing issue, especially for the outer islands.
“The government’s main concern is to provide sufficient water resources for the outer islands,” he told a media briefing on Friday at St George Government building in Nuku’alofa.
The government is now working together with MEIDECC to provide desalination machines for the outer islands, for converting seawater into drinkable water.
Back in September an El Niño season was officially declared for Tonga by the Tonga Meteorology Department, meaning that the Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean is now warmer than usual, expecting warmer temperatures, less rainfall, and more cyclones.
Tonga is forecast to experience warmer temperatures, less rainfall, and more cyclones in the next six months, from October 2023 to May 2024, Tonga MET stated and advised the public to take precautions from now onward for the next six months.
It comes as no surprise that cyclones are forming outside of the normal tropical cyclone (TC) season, as a result of El Niño, Tonga’s Director of Meteorology, ‘Ofa Fa’anunu said.
As President of the World Meteorology Organisation (WMO) Region V, which includes Vanuatu, ‘Ofa said that Severe Tropical Cyclone Lola that hit Vanuatu last week, marked an early beginning for the 2023/24 tropical cyclone season in the South West Pacific.
“Cyclones were expected, whether in or out of season… the main thing is the El Niño event”, he said.
In a similar conditions to Cyclone Lola, he said that Cyclone Keli that hit Tonga in the middle of June, 1997, was another outside of season cyclone due to the El Niño event of that year.
Warmest year on record
The WMO earlier this month, stated that 2023 is firmly set to be the warmest year on record. This year also recorded the hottest July and August months on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service ERA 5 dataset.