Mt Bagana eruption emitting significant amount of ash lava flow to nearby villages. Photo: Facebook.com / Rø Gå Tõ
A Papua New Guinea cabinet minister says weeks of heavy rain have made conditions around the Mt Bagana volcanic eruption zone in Bougainville much worse.
Mt Bagana erupted nearly three weeks ago, leading to evacuations from villages around the volcano which sprewed out ash, gas and lava.
It is continuing to cause issues with ash having affected water supplies, destroyed some houses and food gardens.
Peter Tsiamalili Jr Photo: Supplied
The Bougainville regional MP and Internal Security Minister, Peter Tsiamalili, last week visited the camps at Torokina and Wakunai where the displaced people are being housed.
He said more than 3000 people have been displaced but more are coming to the camps while the wet weather causing flooding has also impacted severely on thousands of others.
"So all together, just from the volcano itself and also from the flooding, you are looking at close to 8000 people being impacted by both the volcano and the flooding," he said.
Tsiamalili was in Buka to welcome a PNG Defence Force barge which was delivering aid to Bougainville, and to mark the first time since the Peace Agreement in 2001 that PNGDF personnel had been in the autonomous region.
Speaking on Wednesday night he said "today we officially welcomed back the PNG Defence Force team back on the ground in Bougainville. So that significant event happened today on Bougainville."
He said the PNGDF will be providing logistics support for those affected by the volcanic disaster for the next few months.