Villagers vigilant as aftershocks continue

Story and pictures by MALUM NALU
THE sight of women and children huddled into a temporary shelter at Yalanda village near Lake Kutubu,Southern Highlands, makes tears roll down my eyes.
We in town take everything for granted while these simple village folk are doing it tough.
They look lost, shell-shocked, and still trying to come to terms with the landslip caused by last week’s earthquake that came and took their village away.
Gone too are their gardens and hunting land, as well as domestic animals.
Six people were buried by the avalanche-like landslip that crashed onto them like a thief in the night.
Their graves are just beside the road where the temporary care centre is located.
Up the road, at neighbouring Baguwale village, four men were killed.
On Wednesday I accompany Petroleum Resources Moran director Tony Kila, who is from Yalanda, to deliver relief aid provided by Mineral Resources Development Company.
It includes water, rice, flour and cooking oil.
We’d been dropped off by veteran helicopter pilot Eric Aliawi of Mt Hagen-based HeliSolutions, who knows the rugged Highlands terrain like the back of his hand, and is flying around like an angel-of-mercy delivering relief aid.
The MRDC relief aid had been transported into Moro on a big Russian MIL helicopter owned by Hevilift from Kagamuga Airport in Mt Hagen.
Oil Search has also provided assistance.
From the air, the scale of the earthquake is obvious, as it has torn away mountainsides everywhere.
Rosanna Seth and other women and children, their faces painted in mud and dressed in black, are standing beside the six new graves.
“At 3 o’clock in the morning on Monday,” she remembers,” the ground just broke.
“We ran everywhere.
“All our houses and gardens were destroyed.
“We are now living on other people’s land and in temporary shelter.”
Seth has lost people dear to her.
“I lost my husband’s mother, my husband’s sister, and my niece,” she says.
“I also lost another niece, a nephew and another in-law.
“They are all buried here.
“We are now all wearing black as a sign of mourning.”
Councillor Abel Erebo tells me that they have lost everything.
“On Monday last week, at 3 o’clock in the morning, the landslide came down and destroyed everything,” he says.
“Not one house is left standing including our school and clinic.
“Aftershocks are continuing to this day.
“We have had no assistance until Oil Search came in and now MRDC.”
Erebo says Yalanda has a population of more than 2000 people.
“It will be hard for us to go back to the site of our village,” he says.
“The mountain is continuing to come down.”
Another councillor, Norman Dabe, tells me that they need to resettle permanently elsewhere.
It was a point that they’d raised with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill when he’d visited earlier in the day.
“We cannot go back to the old village,” he says.
“We are all still in mourning for the loss of family members.
“Up at Baguwale, they lost four people, so that makes 10 deaths altogether in our two villages.”
Kila tells me Petroleum Resources Moran has budgeted about K1 million for disaster relief.
“That K1 million will go basically towards bringing food, basic needs and medical supplies, shelter, water tanks and other necessities towards the five affected villages,” he says.
“It’s been a shocking thing for us because we never thought that we would have an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5.
“Food gardens have been destroyed, drinking water is muddy, all houses are destroyed as well as schools and health centres.
“Basic Government services are destroyed.
“Roads are also destroyed and we can’t travel out by road.”
Kila tThank ed MRDC management for buying relief aid for the people.
“I want to appeal to the Government to look at clearing the Poroma Access Road and Kopi to Moro Road,” he says.
“These are the two priority roads we need because to bring in relief supplies to Moro on helicopter is very expensive.
“The easiest and cheapest way to bring on cargo is to ship from Port Moresby to Kopi by boat, and then drive from Kopi to Moro.
“I appeal to Exxon, Oil Search and the Government to look at getting the Kopi to Moro Road immediately maintained.
“This disaster will have an impact on the economy of the country because there won’t be exports of oil and gas for the next couple of weeks.
“The important thing in people’s lives is to have the access roads opened.”
As Eric Aliawi lifts the chopper, I look to the destroyed landscape below me, and the beautiful Lake Kutubu in the distance.
It’s a striking contrast that leaves me in awesome wonder.
The power of nature is beyond all human understanding.