Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga is a sovereign state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over 700,000Km2 of ocean in the South Pacific. Fifty-two of the islands are inhabited.Tonga is one country, which in conjunction with AusAid, is taking a forward thinking approach to the growing problem of waste management. Nuku’alofa, the capital on the main island of Tongatapu, is a focal point of this growing problem. It has a population of 30,000, a steadily growing per capita income and is located on a coral island.

The Tapuhia Quarry site was developed into a modern waste management facility. The site incorporate recycling facilities, an engineered sanitary landfilling operation and other site facilities to service the waste management needs of Nuku’alofa and the other villages on Tongatapu. Diston Wastewater Technology installed a leachate collection system with explosive proof equipment and a wastewater treatment plant to treat the leachate from the landfill and the islands sullage waste.