Volcano fears and poor conditions add to quake survivors’ misery

FRESH spurts of lava from a nearby volcano yesterday and deteriorating sanitary conditions added to the strain for hundreds of thousands of survivors of Indonesia’s devastating earthquake.

Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanos, spewed lava and hot clouds of gas and ash dozens of times yesterday.

The volcano is north of Yogyakarta, the main city in densely populated central Java, hit just over a week ago by a magnitude 6.3 quake.

Merapi’s lava dome has swelled in the past week to 330 feet, raising fears that it could collapse, officials said. That could send searing-hot clouds of gas and debris called pyroclastic flows pouring down the mountain into inhabited areas, the government volcanology centre warned.

Scientists say the quake may have weakened the lava dome.

Worried villagers have performed rituals in recent days aimed at warding off an eruption.

On Thursday, the mountain’s royally-appointed spiritual guardian, ‘Mbah’ Maridjan, led a silent procession of 100 people three times around a village near the volcano.

More than a thousand aftershocks have hit the region since the earthquake struck before dawn on May 27, killing at least 6,234 people and injuring 30,000 more. Officials estimate that 135,000 homes were destroyed.

Most of the estimated 647,000 people left homeless are living in makeshift shelters — often just plastic tarpaulins — with no toilets or running water.

Doctors said wells and streams in many villages have become polluted because of the poor sanitary conditions.

UN spokeswoman Amanda Pitt said sanitation and the provision of clean water to the homeless “remain a key concern”.

Farmers in the quake-hit area began returning to their fields to pick food to eat and to sell to earn money for rebuilding their homes.

“We have to go back to work, otherwise we can’t eat or rebuild,” said Sri Supati, who was harvesting rice from a communal paddy field no larger than three tennis courts. Around the field were crushed homes and piles of debris.

The UN has issued an urgent appeal for $103 million (€79.7m) to pay for recovery efforts over the next six months — with about half of that for rebuilding homes.

An international relief effort has picked up pace in recent days, although aid has yet to reach some remote areas.