St. Vincent seeks water and funds as volcano continues to erupt

It has been estimated the eastern Caribbean island will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover

Leaders of volcano-wracked St. Vincent said Tuesday water is running short as heavy ash contaminates supplies and they estimated the eastern Caribbean island will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption of La Soufrière.

Between 16,000 to 20,000 people have been evacuated from the island’s northern region, where the exploding volcano is located, with more than 3,000 of them staying at more than 80 government shelters.

“We have to get stuff rolling into people,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a news conference on local station NBC Radio.

But no casualties have been reported since the first big blast from the volcano early Friday.

“We have to try to keep that record,” he said. Gonsalves said some people have refused to leave communities closest to the volcano and urged them to evacuate. He estimated the country will need hundreds of millions of dollars to recover from the eruption.

Falling ash and pyroclastic flows have destroyed crops and contaminated water reservoirs. Garth Saunders, minister of the island’s water and sewer authority, noted some communities have not yet received water. “The windward (eastern) coast is our biggest challenge today,” he said at the news conference of efforts to deploy water trucks. “What we are providing is a finite amount. We will run out at some point.”

The prime minister said people in some shelters need food and water. He thanked neighbouring nations for shipments of items including cots, respiratory masks and water bottles. In addition, the World Bank has disbursed $20 million to the government of St. Vincent as part of an interest-free catastrophe financing program.