People hang up their clothes on their 10th day of staying in an evacuation camp in Manggis district, Karangasem regency, Bali, on Sunday (1/10). The Bali provincial administration has sent home 70,000 evacuees whose houses are 12 kilometers away from the disaster-prone area and are in locations that are considered relatively safe.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – There is still no end in sight to the current crisis at Mount Agung in Bali, with no signs of either increase or decrease in seismic and volcanic activity. More observation tools are required to optimize the monitoring on Mt. Agung’s activity.
“Thus far, there are no indications of decreased activity. The probability of eruption is still high, at a similar level as when the Alert status was declared,” Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center’s (PVMBG) eastern volcano monitoring division head, Devi Kamil Syahbana, said on Sunday (1/10/2017).
PVMBG monitoring shows fluctuating activity at Mt. Agung, with a combination of dozens to hundreds of shallow and deep volcanic and tectonic activities each day. The most severe earthquake measured 4.3 magnitude on the Richter scale and occurred on Sept. 27 at 1:12 p.m. local time.
After the earthquake, it was detected that white smoke or steam puffed out of the Mt. Agung crater at a higher intensity and reached 500 meters into the air.
Volcanologist Surono said that a volcanic eruption would usually be marked with a series of tremors or earthquakes.
“Thus far, this has yet to happen at Mt. Agung. When the tremors occur, we must all be prepared. The problem is that the space between the tremors and the eruption may vary. It can be minutes, hours or days,” he said.
According to Devi, monitoring data shows that there is still a high probability of an eruption, but things can change at any moment. More observation tools, including three seismometers, two CCTV cameras, two tiltmeters and remote sensing analysis equipment will be installed to optimize monitoring on the mountain.
In Karangasem regency, 2,289 evacuees have begun to return home. On Sunday, 141,059 individuals remained in shelters, less than 143,798 on Saturday.
At the evacuation shelter in Ulakan village, Manggis district, Karangasem, around 100 evacuees have returned home.
“Some returned in their own vehicles, other used trucks provided by the government,” Ulakan village head I Nengah Dipta said.
Bali governor I Made Mangku Pastika said that the government was not forcing evacuees from safe zones to return home. Evacuees who are still worried and afraid to go home can stay at the shelters. The government has also prepared vehicles to help evacuees return from safe zones to their homes.
“For residents of villages in safe zones, they can go home if they want to. We are not forcing them,” Pastika said at the Mt. Agung Emergency Disaster Management Command Post in Tanah Ampo, Karangasem.
Reference price for cattle
The Agriculture Ministry, through its directorate general for farming and animal health, has requested the Bali provincial government to determine the lowest reference price for cattle owned by Mt. Agung evacuees. This is to ensure that cattle farmers can still enjoy good selling price without being pressured by the emergency.
The ministry’s director general for farming and animal health, I Ketut Diarmiat, said in a press statement on Sunday that the regulation aimed to avoid middlemen buying cattle from local breeders at unreasonably low prices. The price is set in line with the price per kilogram of live weight.
Diarmita said that he had discussed the proposal in a coordination meeting at the Mt. Agung Eruption Disaster Emergency Post in Karangasem on Friday. “We talked about it with farmers to avoid panic selling of cattle at a low price,” he said.
Farmers are also urged not to sell their cows and female calves. The local government has promised to help provide shelter for these animals and feed them.
There are around 128,000 cows in Karangasem now. The five districts affected by Mt. Agung has a combined cow population of around 30,000, of which 10,000 is estimated to have been sold and the other 20,000 will be the aim of the cow shelter program. Up to last Friday, around 3,357 cows have been evacuated to 40 shelters.
In Surabaya, East Java Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf said that the government had prepared 850,000 face masks to be distributed in areas that could be affected by Mt. Agung’s activity.
The East Java provincial government has continuously updated its database of food and beverage ingredients, medicine and clothes. The database update was conducted on the Horseshoe region, from Pasuruan regency to Banyuwangi regency, which are the areas closest to Bali.
