How ‘Harold’ woke up the Kingdom of Tonga

Cyclone Harold, with winds of 270kmh, flattened Tonga’s tourist resorts, devastated infrastructure, brought down electricity lines, and caused significant damage to the area on which so many local people depend. 

Among them were local fisherman, businessmen, and café workers who had spent their entire lives living on the island. Like each and every one of the 100,000 people of Tonga, they were so proud of their country, culture, and rich heritage and hated seeing the tatters of disarray and devastation laying all around them. Highlighting Harold’s shear force was a shipping container laying in the middle of the road. The solid lump of metal had been pushed and pulled by the waves, narrowly missing houses where the local community were sheltering together. Thankfully, nobody was hurt.    

It was a similar story across the whole of Tonga that week. Harold, with all his cruel force and might, had taken away fruit trees, crops, land, and shrubs – all vital to peoples’ livelihoods in the blink of an eye.  The world knew Tonga was prone to natural disasters, and had them most years, but this was different. This was one too many wake-up calls...

Into the unknown  

Some months before, on a blistering hot day, David Perbey a Civil Maritime Engineer from Royal HaskoningDHV visited Tonga for the first time. He and his team were visiting as part of a feasibility study which had been funded by The Asia Development Bank (ADB), a bank which has a mission to achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. 

The project? To re-evaluate and optimise the country’s only port, prepare it for future growth, and increase its resilience to climate change and natural disasters. Doing so would help protect the present and future prosperity for 100,000 Tongans and ensure the Kingdom could act as a hub for inter-island trade. Looking at his notes over lunch in a local café, David could see that the now 50-year-old port had begun to show signs of falling behind, with degrading infrastructure, poor lighting and not enough space for longer and bigger ships – vital for a smart, sustainable port of the future. But, due to lack of funds, the Tongan Government was unable to maintain, upgrade or improve it.   

As David tucked into his Ota 'ika (a delicious local dish consisting of raw fish marinated in citrus juice and coconut milk), he wondered how bad the port could really be? He had been working at Royal HaskoningDHV since 2007 and had operated on some truly complex projects – this one seemed like a walk in the park! 

The tides turned 

After that long and restless night, the whole of the Royal HaskoningDHV team on the ground knew they needed to act. Firstly, the team were asked to talk to the local community and get their views on the problems at the port, so that they could repair it in line with their needs. Visiting Tonga 13 times over 18 months, David spent time gathering insight, gaining understanding, and building on his local knowledge. At first, it was a challenge.  

“Initially, the locals were cautious about what we had to say – they were so proud of their country and were hesitant to change.” David said. But all that changed on April 9th when Harold woke up the Kingdom of Tonga. His voice was too loud to ignore, and it sent shockwaves through the entire country. The local community knew it was time to properly protect Tonga once and for all.  

Iketau Kaufusi, Manager Infrastructure and Technical Services of the Ports Authority Tonga, worked closely with and collaborated with David – he knew just how vulnerable his port was now that Harold had left his mark. Slowly but surely, the whole island began to get onboard too, giving their perspective and outlining concerns. Initially, part of the problem was that the local people weren’t worried about the port or realised its impact on them – that had all changed thanks to Harold. David and his team also created a video which was presented to the community. It showed clearly and simply what Royal HaskoningDHV was trying to achieve, and how important the port was to Tonga’s future. The result? A united, conscious Tonga that knew it needed to act fast.   

The result was to upgrade the Queen Salote International Wharf using several tactical measures and improvements. It was decided that one of the wharfs should be extended to accommodate larger vessels and more containers, while another was reconstructed. In addition, new dolphins, yard instalments, and smart and green port features were installed which helped enhance the ports facilities, organisation, and lighting. 

Throughout all this, David and his team spent time working with the people of Tonga and showed them things that could easily and quickly be improved on – it made a massive different to attitudes, ways of thinking, and peoples’ lives. Little by little, Royal HaskoningDHV was enabling and empowering Tongans to take ownership of the project and move their port forward into the future.  

It was starting to become clear – to educate and secure Tonga’s future, David and the rest of the Royal HaskoningDHV team had to work together with Tonga, listen, and take on board other perspectives.