Residents on the main island in the Indian Ocean’s Comoros archipelago cleaned up on Tuesday after the weekend eruption of the Mount Karthala volcano blanketed much of Grand Comore with ash and dust.
After sending thousands of panicked villagers fleeing their homes when the eruption began on Sunday, Mount Karthala was stable on Tuesday and did not release any lava or toxic gas as initially feared, officials said.
The officials also sought to ease fears that ash and other debris from the eruption had contaminated the island’s water supplies.
”Currently, the situation is stable and the experts are keeping a close eye on the way things develop,” the Comoros crisis centre said in a statement.
”We have noted that since Monday there has not been further smoke, dust or ash from the crater,” it said, calling on Grand Comore’s 350 000 residents to remain calm but vigilant.
Hamid Soule, a geologist from Moroni’s Mount Karthala Observatory, said the situation is ”stable”, but stressed that ”people should still be careful”.
Given the island nation’s lack of operational helicopters, authorities were not able to fly over the summit of Mount Karthala on Tuesday, but an overflight in a small plane on Monday found no evidence of gas emissions or lava flow.
As calm returned to Grand Comore, a trickle of the 7 000 to 10 000 people who fled their homes in the shadow of the volcano began to return to their villages.
”People who left should return to their homes because the threat is over,” said Chakira Moigni, the secretary general of the Comoros defence ministry. ”The government is prepared to help, in particular by providing fuel.”
Authorities also sought to ease growing concerns on the island that the eruption may have contaminated ground-water supplies on which they are dependent.
”Ground water was not polluted,” said Salimou Mohamed, chief of the crisis centre, noting that of nine water samples sent for laboratory testing, only one showed signs of contamination, and that more tests are under way.
”Water remains fit for consumption,” he said, adding, however, that cisterns should be checked for ash before their contents are drunk.
In Moroni, over which the 2 361m Mount Karthala towers, residents began to sweep up mounds of ash and gritty debris the volcano had spewed out between Sunday and Monday.
The eruption came after signs of increased seismic activity around Mount Karthala were reported in late March by experts at the Comoros National Centre for Documentation and Scientific Research (CNDRS).
On March 30, vulcanologists at the CNDRS Mount Karthala Observatory said they had recorded a ”seismic crisis” under the volcano on March 24, in which about 40 small tremors were picked up, far above the normal activity of about 15.
The volcano last had a magma eruption in 1977, when lava destroyed the village of Singani, about 20km south of Moroni, and toxic gas was released into the air. — Sapa-AFP