The mud disaster spread in Indonesia

It can be said that the mud- blown " volcano " is a unique " disaster " that hurts scientists. The mud still continues to spill over to Sidoarjo district in eastern Java island (Indonesia).

The past half year was a time of great disaster with the people of Sidoarjo district, not only because on May 27 they had to witness a rather strong earthquake but because the hot mud had the stench of spraying from a depth of 3,000m underground. The area of ​​this mudslide is 300 km from Yogyakarta, the capital of the island and only 3 km from Surabaya, 3 million people. Mud filled the fields, ditches, roads and then submerged both barns and houses.

Since late May 2006, many measures to prevent mud movement have been carried out such as using bulldozers, pouring concrete to fill spray holes are not effective. Making a bridge, heaven and earth will not lose. So far the mud still flows and spreads.

Recently, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that Lapindo Drilling Company must be responsible for solving the consequences and compensating the victims of the mud flood. According to him, the damage is up to 140 million USD.

Images taken on March 10, 2007 show that mud erupts covering 600 hectares, many of them
houses in Porong area, Sidoarjo district, east of Java island (Photo: AFP)

Two days before the disaster, PT Lapindo Brantas was conducting a gas drilling drill about 150 m away from the mud spray site. PT Lapindo Brantas belongs to the billionaire Bakrie family. Mr. Aburizal Bakrie, Minister of Social Affairs of this rich family. Mr. Bakrie was one of the biggest financial contributors in the election campaign of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

President Yudhoyono decided that until May 2007, Lapindo had to pay 20% of the compensation to the victims. The cost to restore the situation can be up to 210 million, which is not to include the cost of cleaning up the damaged area. Recently Lapindo announced that he was ready to buy all contaminated houses and gardens.

Currently ' volcanoes ' still spew out over 125,000 cubic meters of mud per day, this volume is equivalent to the capacity of 50 swimming pools serving the Olympics. Currently the authorities are urgently building a canal to bring mud to the Brantas River. One of the two branches of this river, the Porong branch will lead mud to the sea.

According to analysis results, this mud contains very little toxin but very high salinity. Experts say that conducting mud to the sea is an inevitable one because people cannot prevent mud from continuing to rise.