Volcanologists at Ecuador’s Instituto Geofísico have voiced concerns about the return of evacuated villagers to areas of high risk near the Tungurahua volcano, El Universo reports today.

For the second consecutive day, residents of Chacauco (Tungurahua) and Bilbao (Chimborazo) returned to their homes in the high-risk zone, which they had left because of the eruptive activity of the volcano. The families returned to check on their properties and look after livestock and pets. This causes concern for the staff of the Geophysical Institute, who said that the pyroclastic flows emanated last Thursday had been directed towards the Bilbao and Chontapamba area.

Although Tungurahua has shown a decline in activity over the last 24 hours it remains in an unstable and unpredictable condition, with frequent explosive activity and the production of occasional pyroclastic flows, and the IG views the return of local inhabitants to their homes under present circumstances as dangerous and unwise: ‘The activity of the colossus is extremely unstable, reported Patricio Ramón, volcanologist at the Geophysical Institute … The constant comings and goings of the population in areas subject to a red alert constitutes a serious danger, according to Ramón’.

A lengthy article in El Mercurio reports the other side of the story, from those evacuated - discontent at the disruption of daily life, rumours of food aid rotting in stores and of money intended for the volcano’s victims going astray, a prevalent distrust and cynicism about the actions of the local and national authorities: ‘All these institutions who come here out of mere curiosity’, exclaims one evacuee quoted by the paper. ‘Excuse me, even the media … What we have achieved with so much publicity? Do we live better? Of course not, sir. The support they have given us has been piecemeal, it is not a coherent, solid programme’. Another report in the same paper describes the reluctance of the people farming the slopes of the volcano to leave their homes and their fields:

Yesterday saw the people on their farms and grazing their animals. Their everyday life is altered only by the presence of the press and of the authorities that have been moving through the area since Thursday. They are also reluctant to leave their land. Salomón Miranda, a resident of Cotaló, says he is not alarmed by the noise of the volcano. The old man explained that for him to flee the area there would have to be a fall of rocks like that in 2006.

Meanwhile Ecuador’s current president, Rafael Correa, visited Penipe today where he officially handed over new government-provided housing to some of the people made homeless by the Tungurahua eruption of 2006, opened two new shelters in the town, and saw some of the more recent damage inflicted by the volcano.

News
Vulcanólogos critican el retorno de familias a las zonas de alto riesgo – El Universo, 9 February 2008 (Spanish)
La vida pasa entre el albergue y Puela – El Comercio, 9 February 2008 (Spanish)
La agricultura no se para en Cusúa – El Comercio, 9 February 2008 (Spanish)
Correa evaluará en visita a la zona daños causados por erupción Tungurahua – Terra España, 9 February 2008 (Spanish)