Today’s my birthday – big number, don’t ask – and I’m taking the day off to spend time with my family. It’s a tradition I picked up from an old acquaintance and try to maintain every year. It’s not always possible but this year it looks like I’m going to get away with it.

But just because I’m not going to work today doesn’t mean there aren’t a million things to do; nor does it mean that there aren’t some things that have been waiting for me to get around to doing.
This post is one of them.

In a short while, there will be two new sections up on this site – Reviews and Causes – and just because they’re not there, doesn’t mean we’re not doing anything in the background.

The Causes section is where I (we actually) get to place an Acer notebook in the most worthy causes and we already have one out there. It’s in the capable hands of Emily Penn, Operations Manager for Sustainable Coastlines. For those of you who don’t remember, this is how we met.

And here’s her first update:

Michael,

My notebook has finally made it to this tiny remote island! The sinking of the Princess Ashika Ferry last month and the tsunami last week put a lot of pressure on all freight to the Ha’apai Islands, not to mention major spanners in the works for our project… which we have been busy resolving! I have just installed my software – at last I can download and edit my photos (a selection attached) – and so the updates begin…

Firstly I’d like to share a bit of background information with you: to explain the situation in Ha’apai and the reason why I’m here…

The beautiful remote Ha’apai Islands are among the 169 islands that make up the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean… and are also the location of Sustainable Coastlines’ latest large scale cleanup event.

As is often an issue in many developing countries around the world, we see an influx of modernization into a society that does not yet have the systems in place to assimilate the side effects. Tongan culture is yet to adapt to the problems that arise out of food and water that is packaged in plastic. Only 30 years ago, Tongans led a completely sustainable lifestyle consuming fish, coconuts and root vegetables – the waste simply biodegraded naturally. Today, products imported from overseas have flooded the local market and the islands are now inundated with rubbish.

The low-lying Ha’apai Island group, unsuitable for landfill sites, currently has no waste disposal system whatsoever. Household waste is dumped or burnt in backyards (97%) causing serious harm to the health of local people and ecosystems. When surveying the island for the worst affected sites I witnessed the airport truck pull up and proceed to empty the bins emblazoned with ‘keep airport clean’ onto a pile on the beach.

From a western perspective, it is hard to comprehend that here in Ha’apai the concept of needing to dispose of man-made rubbish does not exist. Last week I saw a man mowing his lawn without picking up the plastic bags and crisp packets – little pieces of white plastic spat out the back of the rusty old lawn mower.

The ‘Keep Ha’apai Beautiful’ campaign aims to motivate and educate local people to help form a long term solution. This all kicks off with a massive community wide cleanup event on Thursday 15th October.
Overseas volunteers will team up with hordes of locals to pick up the rubbish on the two main islands – Lifuka and Foa. With the participation of over 1000 school children confirmed for the event it’s going to be a big day!

For more details visit www.sustainablecoastlines.com.

Cheers

Emily

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Emily Penn | +676 8895025
Operations Manager
Ha’apai Coastal Cleanup Event October 2009
www.sustainablecoastlines.com

UPDATE JUST IN: The cleanup event was a MASSIVE success! An absolutely incredible week. More details are in the document attached. I’m going to be in Tonga for a few more months working with the schools and community (so lots more updates to come), then back to New Zealand to secure more funding etc to take the project to the next step. We are evolving everyday and I’m very excited by everything I am learning and what the future holds..
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT ON HOW THE DAY WENT HERE!