Volcano evacuees fearful as shelters run out

Transcript

MANUEL AMU: At the moment we still place these people in some of the remaining location centres but we will be running out of the shelters and they are still coming in. We are expecting around two to three thousand people yet to come who have remained behind after the first evacuation.

KOROI HAWKINS: So you need temporary shelters you need tents you need some sort of shelters to be able to set up for these people coming in.

MA: At the moment we immediately need more shelters to accommodate the people who are, who still flow in at the moment.

KOROI HAWKINS: What about food and water? I would imagine with the ash some of your water supplies would have been contaminated?

MA: Yes on the western part of the island the Vanuatu government is moving  water to western part of Ambae but on here on east Ambae we are working on the existing water supply which is underground water and we mobilise our public works to deliver the water to most of the communities.

KH: And food what about food?

MA: Again concerning the food this morning we had a lot of complaints about shortage of food in most of the centres and we are still running around to make assessments on the food. How much food do we need and which locations are in very desperate need at the moment and we need to find the population of each settlement so that we can give the right amount of food to each of them. But again we are running out of supplies the Vanuatu government is not coming in yet. We are still using our local resource at the moment but since they are coming in big numbers we really need support from the national government.

KH: In Port Vila the national government has announced 200 million vatu to support the evacuation on Ambae but you say none of that or no national authorities have arrived yet to assist?

MA: They are two very important things that the national government has mentioned but we don't have the formal document of those two very important information. One is the declaration of a state of emergency and the other is the amount that they said is around 200 million vatu but we do not receive the detail or confirm information from the ministry of finance or from the government until this time.

KH: So there is a bit of confusion on the island?

MA: Yes.

KH: And what about the volcano itself?

MA: The volcano is continuing to blowing up the ashes and few lavas during the day and night and some other parts of Ambae which have not been experiencing the ash fall and at the moment they start to experience the ash fall and also they experience the sound like they have never heard.

KH: The sounds did you say sounds that they have never heard?

MA:Sounds like the volcanic eruption sounds in parts where I am staying for the last three weeks we do not heard that sound but this time we can hear clearly each, the sound of each eruption.

KH: So is it like thunder or is it like a booming sound or can you feel it in the ground or can you describe the sound?

MA: It is like booming.

KH: That must be very scary. How are women and children feeling in this time? I would imagine people are quite stressed.

MA: Yes people are quite scared at the moment and we have to go around and comfort in one way or another so that we will continue to manage the situation.

KH: Do people want to leave are some people leaving the island to go some where else nearby islands maybe?

MA: At the moment I don't have the record of how many people are leaving but people are, people of the nearby islands who are located here already moved like Pentecost Island and Maewo and people are freely agree if it increases to alert level five then everybody has a plan in place and most people agreed to move to the other islands.  

KH: Can you see the volcano from where you are can you see the crater?

MA: At the moment from this location we do not see the volcano.

KH: But you can still hear it?

MA: We can still hear it and we can still see the smoke and clouds coming out from the volcano.

KH: The ash and the cloud.

MA: Yes the ash and the cloud.

KH I guess if there was anyone out there that could hear you now on radio what would your appeal be maybe to the national government or to just anyone who could help.

MA: Okay my first appeal is to the people from Penama Province who are living in Port Vila, Luganville on Santo, Pentecost Island, Maewo. We need you support to provide us with necessary food if possible. We will ask the national government about supporting us with food but it is very important that the members of this province to come very clear to show your support to some of our people who have been victimised by the volcanic activity. For the national government it is very important to come up to make it very clear if we are in the state of emergency or not. And the second thing is if we have some amount of money like have been mentioned in media then it is better to confirm to the provincial government if we can use that amount of money and how we use that amount of money to carry out our plans to look after the people on the ground.