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.