90 mln meter cubic of cold lava threatens from Indonesia's Mount Merapi

As much as 90 million meter cubic of cold lava is threatening Indonesians who live around Mount Merapi in the border of Yogyakarta and Central Java province that was erupted in 2010. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of Data, Information and Public Relation at the National Agency of Disaster Management (BNPB), said in a statement that entering the rainy season, people around the volcano are urged to raise their alertness. "In fact, we have raised status in Magelang regency to the top alert. Threat from cold lava caused by Merapi eruption in 2010 still overshadows people and infrastructure across 15 rivers around Merapi. Out of 140 million meter cubic of the eruption material, it is expected that there is still 90 million meter cibic of pyroclastic material in the slope of Merapi," he said. According to Nugroho, so far dams to hold volcanic material have been filled with 18.24 million meter cubic material or 90 percent of their capacity. "This makes cold lave flows easily," he said. He added that the impact is quite big. "In the last rainy season, 28 villages were hit by cold lava, causing damage on 861 houses and tens of bridge destroyed," he said. He said that BNPB has provided an emergency fund of 444.69 billion rupiah (about 50 million U.S. dollars) for emergency handling.