Officials warn second landslide, disease outbreak loom in Papua New Guinea

Authorities have voiced concern over the risk of a second landslide and a disease outbreak at the scene of Papua New Guinea's mass-casualty disaster because of water streams and bodies trapped beneath the tonnes of debris that swept over a village.

A mass of boulders, earth and splintered trees devastated Yambali in the South Pacific nation’s remote highlands when a limestone mountainside sheared away Friday.

The blanket of debris has become more unstable with recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble, said Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the International Organization for Migration's mission in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday.

“We are hearing suggestions that another landslide can happen and maybe 8,000 people need to be evacuated," Aktoprak said.

"This is a major concern. The movement of the land, the debris, is causing a serious risk, and overall the total number of people that may be affected might be 6,000 or more,” he said.

That includes villagers whose source of clean drinking water has been buried and subsistence farmers who lost their vegetable gardens.

"If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down" the mountain, Aktoprak said.

The UN estimates 670 villagers died, while Papua New Guinea’s government has said it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried. Six bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Tuesday.

Thousands displaced

A UN statement tallied the affected population at 7,849, including people who might need to be evacuated or relocated. The UN said 42 percent of those were children under 16.

Some villagers were evacuated on Tuesday, Enga provincial disaster committee chairperson and provincial administrator Sandis Tsaka told Radio New Zealand. The number was unclear.

As many people as possible would be evacuated on Wednesday, Tsaka said.

Relocating survivors to safer ground has been a priority for days and evacuation centres have been established on either side of the debris heap, which is up to 8 meters high and sprawling over an area the UN says is equivalent to three or four football fields.

Contagious diseases

Scenes of villagers digging with their bare hands through muddy debris in search of their relatives' remains were also concerning.

"My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying, ... water is flowing and this is going to pose serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases," Aktoprak said.

Aktoprak’s agency raised those concerns at a disaster management virtual meeting of national and international responders on Tuesday.

The warning comes as geotechnical experts and heavy earth-moving equipment are expected to reach the site soon.

The Papua New Guinea government on Sunday officially asked the United Nations for additional help and to coordinate contributions from individual nations.

An Australian disaster response team arrived on Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia’s nearest neighbour. The team includes a geohazard assessment team and drones to help map the site.