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Fri, 12:43 12 Sep 2008 GMT17

 
Indonesia mudflow

Last reviewed: 28-08-2008

ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER DISPLACES THOUSANDS


A volunteer helps evacuate a villager on a makeshift raft through mud in the village of Kedungbendo, Sidoarjo, in Indonesia's East Java province, December 2006.
A volunteer helps evacuate a villager on a makeshift raft through mud in the village of Kedungbendo, Sidoarjo, in Indonesia's East Java province, December 2006.
Some 50,000 Indonesians have been driven from their homes in the east of Java island by a torrent of hot toxic mud unleashed after a drilling accident in May 2006 near the country's second city of Surabaya.

  • 50,000 people displaced
  • Gas pipeline explosion kills 13
  • Energy company fined $420 million

    The mudflow has engulfed villages, roads, dozens of factories and swathes of paddy and sugarcane fields, as well as damaging railway, gas and electricity networks. It is also believed to have caused a gas pipeline explosion in November 2006 that killed 13 people.

    The mud flow has become a top political and environmental issue, with arguments raging over whether oil drilling or a deadly earthquake two days before - or both - triggered the disaster.

    Displaced residents have held frequent street rallies. They - and some experts - believe that a firm drilling a well at a gas exploration site in the Sidoarjo area near Surabaya caused the debacle by opening up a crack some 1,800 metres (6,000 feet) below ground.

    President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the energy company that operates the well, Lapindo Brantas, must pay 2.5 trillion rupiah ($275 million) in compensation to villagers and 1.3 trillion rupiah ($145 million) to tackle the mudflow itself.

    Lapindo denies the disaster was caused by the drilling operation, but has signed an agreement to pay victims compensation for their swamped land.

    The hot mud has continued to spew out at a rate of 100,000 cubic metres a day, despite government efforts to plug the leak.

    In February 2007, scientists began an operation to drop 1,500 or more high-density concrete balls linked to steel cables into the mouth of the mud volcano. One scientist behind the experiment said the balls may brake the flow but wouldn't not stop it entirely.

    Some experts have expressed doubt about the method, saying the pressure could push the mud to come out from other points.

    Leading environmental group Walhi is suing Lapindo and the Indonesian president over the volcano. A suit filed in a Jakarta court demanded that Yudhoyono require Lapindo and its partners to bear all the costs for stopping the mud flow, compensating victims and restoring the environment.

    Seven months into the disaster, the government set up a permanent body, the Sidoarjo Mud Management Agency, to help communities affected by the torrent of mud.

    In January 2008 the mud volcano breached the barriers built to contain it, covering nearby railway tracks and a road. Although there were no reported casualties, residents fled their homes in panic.
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    Earth-moving equipment is used in Sidoarjo in Indonesia East Java province August 29, 2008. Mud tourism is about the only thing that is flourishing in Porong, an East Java suburb that ...


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