Indonesia’s most active volcano has claimed the lives of 240 people since it began erupting last month, sending almost 400,000 fleeing into makeshift camps, an official said yesterday.
The authorities have warned people living in the temporary shelters not to return to their homes as Mount Merapi, which lies at the center of Java island, remained highly active and unpredictable.
“We don’t know and cannot predict the next big eruptions, so refugees still have to stay in makeshift camps until further evaluations,” government volcanologist Subandrio said. “Merapi activity is still high and it still has an alert status.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
A disaster management official said the death toll had now reached 240 after rescuers recovered more bodies from the disaster zone, while about 390,000 people have fled their homes.
Indonesian farmer Ari Sutikno was a month away from harvesting his rice crop when Mount Merapi buried it — and his family’s income — under a layer of hot ash.
Like thousands of other poor farmers across central Java, the 65-year-old father of three has lost everything to the destructive power of nature.
His paddy field in Sanggrahan village, about 22km northwest of the fuming crater, is now dead and he does not know when he will be able to plant again.
In the meantime, his family will have to depend on the charity of friends and relatives, and the meager support of the state.
“My paddy was our only source of income but it’s all gone,” he told reporters as the volcano continued to spew ash and hot gas a week after its last deadly eruption. “I’m waiting now for rain to soften the mud so I can salvage the paddy, otherwise it’s the end.”
Indonesia is the world’s third biggest producer of rice after China and India, thanks in no small part to its rich volcanic soils and plentiful rainfall. Farmers around Merapi would normally expect three harvests a year.
However, that natural richness sometimes extracts a high price. Vast tracts of countryside that usually glow a verdant green now wear a gray mask of ash and volcanic mud known as lahar.
In Banyudono village, rice farmer Pertimah was desperately trying to save what she could from her ruined crop. Relatives were helping to carefully separate the paddy from the heavy mud.
“I’ve tried to save as much as I can, but that’s all I can do. I put everything in God’s hands. It’s part of his scheme,” she said.
She had been five days away from harvest when the ash rained down last Friday, in the volcano’s biggest eruption since the 1870s.
Mount Merapi — the name means Mountain of Fire — has killed 206 people since it began erupting late last month, and forced more than 380,000 people into emergency shelters.
The most active volcano in an archipelago studded with them, Merapi is also a sacred landmark in ancient Javanese tradition.
People like Sutikno and Pertimah think of it as a living thing, one which wakes and sleeps and, at times, bursts with intemperate anger.
“It’s like someone who has a serious illness and there’s no sign of a recovery,” Sutikno said. “It’s almost impossible to predict. I’ve often thought that it would go back to sleep but it has come back to life again and again. It’s never-ending misery for us, I’m so frustrated.”
Pertimah said the failed harvest had cost her about US$2,500, a fortune for poor farmers like her.
“All the money I invested here has gone. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I don’t have any idea where can I find money to start over again,” she said.
The government has said it will replace all the livestock killed on the slopes of Merapi since Oct. 26, but for arable farmers like Pertimah, there have been no such guarantees.
“I hope Merapi stops erupting soon. Otherwise it’s a pity for all the villagers here,” she said.
Officials said that despite the devastation around Merapi, the eruptions would have almost no effect on Indonesia’s total rice output.
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