Warning: Heavy rain may cause more slides

By PETER WARI
HEAVY rain is likely to cause more landslides in areas affected by the earthquakes, says an engineer says.
Martin Warek, an engineer with the Parohu EPC Contractors, warned people to take precautions and move away from hilly areas.
Warek worked for the Department of Works for almost 20 years and studied in Japan for two years.
His course focused on earthquakes. He said the disaster was not man-made but natural.
“Now it is important for us to brace ourselves against erosion and landslides because we have a lot of cracks in the earth,” he said.
“As the country experiences heavy rainfall, people living on mountains and hills have to move to flat land.
“It is a possible disaster because the earth has been opened up and during heavy rain, it will start to slide and cause massive destructions. People living downstream will be greatly affected.”
He said the disaster occurred because of plates colliding and right under the plates there was a stress.
Papua New Guinea has many micro-plates such as the Woodlark, Solomon Sea, Pacific, Caroline, North and South Bismarck plates.
“The aftershock will continue for a while and eventually subside and it will not be more than 7. 5 magnitudes as experienced,” he said.
Warek said it was now important to have seismic movement monitoring facilities established in Mendi, Wewak or Aitape and in Western.
“We are in a seismic zone and we need to monitor those seismic activities,” he said.
“What we will have in our recommendations to the provincial government is setup stations in Mendi, Western Province and probably Wewak or Aitape and monitor the default.”