Mt. Papandayan victims face disease, lack of food
Mt. Papandayan victims face disease, lack of food
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Persons displaced from the slopes of Mount Papandayan in Garut,
West Java, are facing various problems, including a lack of food
and water, and stomach problems.
Antara reported on Sunday that some 40 displaced persons were
receiving medical treatment everyday in the emergency units of
command posts in Cisurupan and Bayongbong subdistricts.
Dadi Rahardi, a staffer at the Cisurupan command post, said
that the displaced persons were mainly suffering from stomach
problems and diarrhea.
"We need more medics to help the refugees in the shelters," he
said.
Some 7,500 people were displaced by the explosion.
Some residents insisted on returning home on Sunday as they
felt that the mountain had returned to normal, said Dadi.
"So, we will have to persuade and explain to them that the
condition of Mt. Papandayan is still unsafe," Dadi was quoted by
Antara as saying.
Separately, Pangauban village command post coordinator Kosim
Setiawan said on Sunday that 28 families consisting of 125 people
from Cikati, a dangerous zone for volcanic activity, had wrongly
fled into the Pacen forest, believing that it was safer there.
They had built their own shelters in the forest but they
were now suffering from a lack of food and water, he said.
"We ask them to join the other refugees in shelters provided
by the government, but they refused," Kosim said.
He said the displaced villagers had gone to the Pacen forest
as their forbears also did during the 1942 Mt. Papandayan
eruption.
"They believe that the Pacen forest can protect them from the
mountain's anger," he said.
Meanwhile, the 2,665-meter-high Mt. Papandayan was quieter on
Sunday compared to previous days, although its status could not
yet be downgraded from dangerous, according to a senior
government official.
"Despite the current declining trend in the number of
eruptions, seismic activity near the mountain peak remains high,"
said Mas Atje Purbawinata, a vulcanologist from the Directorate
General for Volcanology and Mitigation in Bandung, West Java.
He added that the volcano, which started emitting lava last
Monday, continued to spew out hot ash and thick smoke up to a
height of 600 meters on Sunday.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro
said on Saturday that a monitoring team would decide on Monday
whether or not to change the status of Mt. Papandayan.
Atje also warned people living near the Cibeureum Gede,
Cibeureum Leutik and Ciparugpuk rivers to remain on the alert for
lahar (volcanic mudflows) resulting from a possible collapse of
one of the volcano's craters.
"Such a collapse would not affect the intensity of the
eruption ... we're afraid it could turn into lahar," he said.
Meanwhile, visitors continued to arrive at the mountain from
early in the morning to witness the rare natural phenomenon.
Many visitors have ignored the government's warnings not to
trespass in certain dangerous areas on the mountain's slopes.
Evidence of this can be seen, for example, by the fact that
warning notices have been frequently pulled out of the ground.