Port Moresby: Authorities in Papua New Guinea have warned of the risk of more landslides at the site of the latest disaster, with government experts demanding the evacuation of the area and declaring it a “no-go zone”.
A draft internal report by Papua New Guinea’s Department of Mines and Geohazards released Tuesday by AFP warned of the urgent need to clear mountain communities where hundreds of people are feared dead on May 24.
The report further states that there are many hazards associated with landslides, rockfalls and underground flows.
Noting that landslides are “very likely in the future,” the report concluded that “all access to the area should be limited to experts”.
Rescue workers have failed to find survivors from the 600-meter (1,970 ft) stretch of mud, rock and debris left behind by a landslide on Mount Mungalo in central Papua New Guinea.
Now geologists and other government experts are warning that the restoration work could cause another landslide and that the relocation of the villagers is “non-negotiable”.
In particular, there is concern that the recent use of heavy machinery may overturn the rocks above.
“Motion or vibration of the equipment will move these stones,” the report warns.
There will be many orders to keep them.
Traditional customs are crucial to the recovery of bodies, and the area is prone to tribal violence.
Any order to evacuate would be “very sensitive and complicated”, says Justine McMahon of CARE Papua New Guinea.
“Because it’s not just the relationship of people to the country (land), but the impact of newcomers on local dynamics.”
Papua New Guinea’s first government estimates that as many as 2,000 people may have been buried last month, but local officials put the number in the hundreds.
According to local health authorities, only nine bodies have been recovered.
