Moonan urges relocation as Los Iros land shifts continue

Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior geo­sci­en­tist Xavier Moo­nan is call­ing for the re­lo­ca­tion of farm­ers and the con­struc­tion of a new road, as shift­ing land and gas emis­sions con­tin­ue in Los Iros.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Moo­nan said, “Re­al­ly, they need to be re­lo­cat­ed. They should be giv­en agri­cul­tur­al land and al­lowed else­where to do their busi­ness.”

He con­firmed that cracks and bub­bling have been ob­served but stopped short of con­firm­ing a mud vol­cano. “We haven’t proven that yet. When we start to see the grey muds com­ing up, then we’ll have an idea.”

Drone sur­veys are un­der­way, and Moo­nan says the ground move­ment is much greater than in 2018. He ex­plained that sim­i­lar bub­bling then led to a con­firmed mud vol­cano four months lat­er.

Due to the scale of the ac­tiv­i­ty, Moo­nan said re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion is no longer prac­ti­cal. “It is very clear that the area is just go­ing to con­tin­ue to move. No sig­nif­i­cant in­vest­ment is ad­vised.”

He rec­om­mend­ed the re­vival of a 2018 pro­pos­al to build a by­pass road through more sta­ble ground.

“It re­al­ly does not make sense to in­vest any­thing in­to fix­ing what got dam­aged,” he said.

Moo­nan al­so not­ed that the coast­line ap­pears to be ex­tend­ing again, like­ly by over 170 me­tres — more than what was seen in 2018.

Most of the dan­ger zone lies south of the main road, he added, say­ing re­lo­ca­tion to the north would be safer. The In­sti­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs and oth­er state agen­cies con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the area.