19th May, 2015 The Acting Prime Minister and Minister of MEIDECC Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni officially opened a water testing laboratory yesterday at the Natural Resources Centre, Vaololoa.
The laboratory aimed to test and monitor the quality of Fanga’uta Lagoon under the Ridge to Reef (R2R) Project.
Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni said the new lab would help monitor Fanga’uta’s ecosystem health.
“The newly established water testing laboratory will be the beginning of an ongoing collaborative effort involving the various stakeholders monitoring the Lagoon’s ecosystem health,” he said.
“We hope to expand the existing laboratory into the future to be able to cater for other national research needs.”
CEO of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources ‘Asipeli Palaki said in the past years the project’s committee relied on other labs both international and local to test water samples.
“Today we witness our own laboratory. Before we used different laboratory, we used the Ministry of Health’s lab for testing, we used Tonga Water Board’s laboratory but now we have our own facility,” he said.
“We will no longer depend on other government ministries and we will no longer send out samples overseas for further analysis. We will do it here in Tonga.”
UNDP’s Coordination Officer Ms Milika Tuita congratulated the Acting Prime Minister and members of the project’s committee for their great achievement in the establishment of the water testing lab.
“I would like to congratulate the Hon. Minister for MEIDECC, Director of Environment, Project Manager and her team, members of the technical working group, representatives of partner ministries, departments and community members for the various significant achievements in the past year, and now with another milestone completed in the establishment of the water testing laboratory.”
The R2R Program was one of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in the Pacific in partnership with International Institutions including UNDP in the implementation of such program in the Pacific Island Nations, Africa and the Caribbean.
Presented at the special occasion was the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Mr. Rob Zaagman and the Special Envoy of the UN, Ambassador Sjev Ijzerman.
ENDS
Issued from the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications