About 6,000 People Evacuated Following Mount Sinabung Eruption

Medan, N Sumatra (Antara) - A total of 5,962 people living near Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra's Karo district have been evacuated since the volcano erupted last Nov 12. Those affected by the disaster left their homes and plantations to live in temporary shelters. Most of them are farmers producing vegetables and fruits such as chili, tomato, oranges and citrus. "The government and local banks are considering rescheduling the maturity of credits extended to farmers. If necessary, we will give them more credits so that after the disaster they can rebuild their business using the credit fund," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono said here on Sunday. Volcanic material spewing from Mount Sinabung last Nov 12 has destroyed 1,893 hectares of citrus plantations in Tanah Karo and impacted fruit production. "The number of damaged citrus plantations may increase as the data was only gathered from five sub-districts located near Mount Sinabung," the Head of Karo District's Agriculture Office, Agustoni Tarigan said on Wednesday. The 1,893 damaged plantations are located in five sub-districts, namely Merdeka, Berastagi, Namanteran, Simpangempat and Payung. In fact, data from the local agriculture office show that there are around 14,000 citrus plantations in the Karo District. The low production is estimated to last until next year as the effect of the volcanic material will be seen during the next harvest. The local administration's plan to rejuvenate damaged citrus plantations will have to wait until Mount Sinabung's eruption has stopped. Mount Sinabung has erupted several times since September this year. The volcano, which is located 2,460 meters above sea level, erupted again on Sunday at 3:58 p.m. Karo's administration has set aside a budget to provide 165,000 citrus seedlings for local farmers to replace the old trees. "Providing the seedlings is one of the efforts being made to conserve and develop one of Karo's typical fruits as many of the citrus trees were old and suffering from diseases," Tarigan stated. (*)