McCully and delegation visit Aitutaki

The visit by New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs has raised many expectations from the local community in cyclone ravaged Aitutaki which he and his delegation visited on Tuesday 6 April.
Accompanying the Foreign Minister on his Aitutaki trip were DPM Hon Robert Wigmore, Finance Minister Hon Wilke Rasmussen and MOIP Minister Hon William (Smiley) Heather and acting New Zealand High Commissioner, Linda Te Puni.
Their mission was to take a first hand inspection of the progress of the rebuilding and reconstruction work carried out on the homes as well as the institutional buildings such as the schools and of Aitutaki Hospital.
Inspections were made of Aitutaki Hospital and Araura School as well as the repair and reconstruction of homes assessed as having category 1 and category 2 ratings (minor or moderate damage). They also inspected the prototype house designed by MOIP engineers to replace homes that have totally devastated during cyclone Pat.
MOIP has put a system in place with the aim of having six homes repaired per week using three work teams with 10 men each working on two homes per week, depending on how extensive the damage sustained as well as the size of the damaged home.
The reconstruction work is being led by MOIP consultant engineer, Atatoa Herman whose team also put together the Cyclone Pat Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Government.
Also on their inspection route were the emergency shelters as well as the Aitutaki waste facility and recycling centre which is where all scrap metal and twisted roofing iron are being stored.
The visit was also to meet with the people of Aitutaki through their Mayor Tai Herman and the Island Council held at the Orongo Centre followed by a meeting with the Aitutaki Tourism Council at Tamanu Beach resort. The After a luncheon hosted by the Aitutaki Council with the menu reportedly featuring taro, rukau and kumara to show the fact that local vegetables (including from Rarotonga) were available on the island again.
On return to Rarotonga, the official party were surprised to find the CITV news crew on the tarmac to greet them and interview them as to their trip.
McCully described the people and their island as being very resilient and was glad to see that the island had a lot of greenery again. The reconstruction work was going well on the schools and hospital and also of the category 1 and category 2 homes.
These are the homes rated as having ‘minor’ or ‘moderate’ damage but the damage to homes that are category 3 (substantial damage) and category 4 (completely destroyed) are more ‘significant’ and present a different challenge again.
The Minister indicated that he would be entering into discussion with the Cook Islands Government on how to address those issues.
Finance Minister Wilke Rasmussen echoed the views of Minister McCully and that Government had arranged the visit in such a way as to allow the Minister to talk to the people of Aitutaki on what they are looking for.
A spokesman from the office of the Minster of MOIP later told CI Herald to caution the public that ‘there is a long way to go’ because there are so many homes affected that reconstruction is likely to take the rest of the year to complete.

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