Papua New Guinea is vulnerable to natural disasters such as landslides and earthquakes because of a host of reasons, including its geographical location and deforestation. However, climate change has worsened the situation in recent years.
In the early morning of May 24, when most of the residents of Papua New Guinea’s Yambali village were fast asleep, parts of a mountain fell on them due to a colossal landslide. More than 2,000 people are estimated to be buried, with more than 70,000 affected by the disaster.
Rescue workers have been toiling to save the buried. But days after the incident, they seem to have lost hope. “It is not a rescue mission, it is a recovery mission,” UNICEF Papua New Guinea’s Niels Kraaier said in a statement. “It is very unlikely they will have survived.”
Papua New Guinea is vulnerable to natural disasters such as landslides and earthquakes because of a host of reasons, including its geographical location and deforestation. However, climate change has worsened the situation in recent years.
Here is a look at why Papua New Guinea witnesses frequent natural disasters, and how climate change is leading to more frequent landslides.
But first, what happened?
The Yambali village in Enga province was hit by a landslide around 3 am with boulders — as big as shipping containers — falling on buildings, homes, and at least one school.
Rescue efforts began immediately and videos posted on social media showed people frantically digging through the debris with makeshift tools. But the efforts were severely limited as “rocks are still moving, the mountain is still crumbling, and we are seeing rock and debris pile up on what’s already happened,” Sandis Tsaka, the administrator of Enga Province, said in a statement on May 25, according to The New York Times.
Till May 29 — five days after the incident — only six bodies had been recovered. With not much hope of finding any survivors, locals started to hold funeral ceremonies, collective events known locally as “haus krai”, last week.
Why is Papua New Guinea vulnerable to landslides and earthquakes?
The main reason is the geographical location of the country. It sits on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ — a string of hundreds of volcanoes and earthquake sites which run along the Pacific Ocean. The ring, which is a semicircle or horse shoe in shape, witnesses many earthquakes due to constant sliding past, colliding into, or moving above, or below each other of the tectonic plates.
Frequent earthquakes also lead to a high number of landslide incidents in Papua New Guinea. For instance, in 2018, a large earthquake triggered many landslides across the region.
Other factors like the country’s mountainous terrain and tropical climate also contribute to more frequent landslides. Speaking to ABC News, Dave Petley, vice-chancellor of the University of Hull (UK) and an expert on landslides, said that “heavy rain and storms lead to increased erosion, flooding, and higher tides, all of which raise the chance of dangerous rockfalls”.