Indonesia reduces exclusion zone around Mount Agung

The Indonesian government on Thursday said it has reduced the size of an exclusion zone around Mount Agung in Bali, which will allow thousands of residents who were evacuated for a possible eruption to return home.

Agung is still in the eruptive phase with relatively high volcanic activity and fluctuations, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources spokesperson Agung Pribadi said in a statement, reports Efe news.

Since the eruption alert level of Agung was raised to the maximum in September, volcanic activity has caused losses worth $820 million, according to data from the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management.

Of the total loss, some $670 million is attributed to the tourism sector, while the rest is mostly due to the evacuation of residents from the surrounding areas.

Agung began a phase of volcanic activity on November 21, 2017, which forced the closure of Ngurah Rai international airport, located 60 km to the south of the volcano due to a cloud of smoke, which affected more than 100,000 passengers.

More than 5 million foreign tourists flew to Bali in 2017, according to the airport authorities.

Located in the east of the island, Mount Agung is far from most tourist attractions.

Agung is erupting for the first time since 1963, when the ejection of magma lasted almost a year and caused more than 1,100 deaths.

The Indonesian archipelago sits within the so-called Ring of Fire in the Pacific, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity that is shaken by thousands of tremors every year.

--IANS

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