One of Bougainville’s active volcanoes Mount Bagana down in Torokina has been spewing heavy ash down to nearby villagers where alluvial mining is taking place.
Reports reaching Loop PNG in Buka indicates that since three o’clock Bougainville standard time last Thursday the volcano started spewing heavy ash covering food gardens and chasing gold miners down towards the coast.
An alluvial gold miner who wishes to remain anonymous told Loop PNG by mobile phone last night that authorities have already been notified.
“In the first place people were warned by the disaster office in Buka to be careful for such disasters like earthquakes and slides and volcanic ash, but people were blinded by money and never took any heed of the warnings being given,” he said.
“And now we will be the first people again to go and ask help from the disaster office the place which we ignored,” he said.
The disaster office in Buka has already been alerted and they are also on standby.
The places where people have dug up have been covered by ash now and people will need to dig it all up again.
There is a good number of people living within the area where the volcanic ash is covering including two primary schools.
(Caption: Mount Bagana picture courtesy of www.pinterest.com)