Local
communities are struggling to cope with the aftermath of a major earthquake
that hit Papua New Guinea's remote highlands almost a week ago, reports said
Sunday, amid fears of a rising death toll.
The
highlands in the Pacific nation's interior about 600 kilometres (370 miles)
north-west of Port Moresby were struck by a 7.5-magnitude tremor early on
February 26.
The region
has also been shaken by a series of strong aftershocks in subsequent days, the
latest a 6.0-magnitude tremor recorded by the United States Geological Survey
that struck about 0.30am local time Monday (1430 GMT Sunday).
The
government has declared a state of emergency and sent relief workers to the
Southern Highlands, Western, Enga and Hela provinces, which have been hit by
downed communications, landslides and sinkholes, as well as toppled homes and
buildings.
"This
was the biggest earthquake in a hundred years (in the highlands) and it spread
150 kilometres across the fault line," humanitarian duty officer Darian
Clark of the Australian High Commission (embassy) said in a statement Saturday.
"A
number of urban settlements, as well as villages, have been affected, many in
the form of landslides and landslips, which means that roads have been cut off,
water contaminated, power knocked out and other widespread effects for the
local people."
Numerous
communities have yet to be reached by aid workers and it was not known how
badly they were affected, seismologist Mathew Moihoi of PNG's Geophysical
Observatory told AFP Sunday.
No official
death toll has been released by the government, but various PNG media reports
have cited local officials on the ground who spoke of dozens of casualties.
The PNG
Post-Courier newspaper has collated unconfirmed reports of more than 50 dead
from the initial quake.
"The
figures (for the death toll) have been coming out from areas where there is
access, but there might be areas which are not accessible and it is a little
bit hard to get to those areas," Moihoi said.
"There
might be some casualties there, we just don't know. It's going to be a little
bit difficult to get the figures at this stage."
Local news
website Loop PNG cited a police officer as saying that starvation and looting
were on the rise in the affected communities.
The
situation was worsening on the ground every day, the website added Sunday,
quoting local advocacy groups mobilising to help stricken communities.
"People
are crying and they are shouting when they are calling us," Cathy Alex
from the Advancing PNG Women's Network said as she pleaded for public
donations.
"We
can't just sit and wait for the (government-pledged disaster funding of) 450
million kina (US$140 million)."
Besides the
government's aid efforts, oil and gas companies ExxonMobil and Oil Search,
which operate in the area, have assisted relief and recovery efforts.
The
Australian military said Saturday it had arrived in PNG and was distributing
relief supplies and conducting aerial surveys of quake-hit areas.
Death toll from Papua New Guinea earthquake rises to 67, with thousands homeless and without food and clean water, Red Cross reports https://t.co/VFVtyDuzch pic.twitter.com/IW7cHN5vqI— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 5, 2018
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