20 Apr 2010

Vanuatu officials still negotiating Gaua evacuation

2:40 pm on 20 April 2010

Vanuatu's disaster management office says almost 3,000 people will be ferried off Gaua island if the activity of its volcano increases.

The Gaua volcano in Torba province in the country's north began erupting seven months ago and there's been an increase in mud flow, ash fall and more explosions in recent weeks.

The water level in the crater lake has been rising and there're fears that mud could flow from the lake to the populated areas.

The disaster management office's planner, Peter Korisa, says they had several meetings to discuss the issue.

"We're planning to move people to Vanualava. We're still negotiating and working with people from the province to see if there're possibilities in the areas that we could use as evacuation centres. But there's no date [for the evacuation] yet, we don't have a [final] plan."

Peter Korisa says at this stage the situation doesn't warrant an evacuation.