[Indonesia] Poverty hits villagers as Merapi stays on high alert

from The Jakarta Post

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Sleman

Mt. Merapi continued billowing hot clouds of ash and steam Sunday, leaving residents unable to work and forcing them to sell their livestock to raise money.

Some villagers who earn their living as traders are facing the bitter reality that their shops in the Kaliadem tourist area were buried by volcanic ash Wednesday. The volcano also sent massive heat clouds to the area, killing two men.

"I can't even think anymore. How can I cope with these problems?" Sri Wahyuni, a food stall owner in the tourist area, told Antara.

The Kaliadem hamlet resident has been living in a shelter at SMKN 1 vocational high school in Cangkringan for the past two months. She says she has no strength left to visit her house near the Opak river.

"My children are going to school without uniforms, and I have only two sets of clothes with me," she said.

With no money, it's been difficult to take care of her livestock. Water shortages have also become a problem. "I've decided to sell one of our two cows to cover our living expenses," she said.

But even selling a cow will not bring peace of mind. One of her two children, Resa, is about to enroll in junior high school, so she has to come up with more money. "I don't know what else to do or what our family's future will be," she said.

Another villager, Yamirah, 34, was not sure whether she could raise enough money to send her daughter, Dwi Astuti, to junior high school, since she has had to stop working as a sand miner on the volcano's slopes. "I want her to at least graduate from junior high," she told Antara.

She could only pin her hopes on her husband's plan to become a construction worker in the city. "My husband said he would try," Yamirah said.

With no work or money, the villagers have no plan to move out of the volcano's dangerous path. "We don't have another house to go to. Besides, we have a big family, and Kaliadem is home," she said.

The volcano showed no signs of cooling down Sunday, spewing hot clouds every 30 minutes that trailed four kilometers down its slopes.

The mountain continued to spit lava sparks; 57 were recorded just within six hours on Sunday morning, traveling as far as 2.5 kilometers down the slopes.

The head of the Merapi section at the Yogyakarta volcanology center, Subandriyo, said Sunday that a new lava dome emerged soon after the volcano spewed searing clouds of ash and steam on Wednesday.

"The position of the new lava dome, which was formed on May 14, is concealed because it's in a cavity around 100 meters wide. We don't know its height and volume yet," he said.

The formation of the new lava dome, he said, would help reduce the quantity of hot clouds and sparks of lava, but it did not mean the volcano is becoming less dangerous.

"Hot clouds of ash and steam are still posing a serious threat to residents living on Merapi's slopes," he said.

He said residents who live within seven kilometers of the crater should remain in shelters as the volcano will be kept on high alert.