Sidoarjo Hot Mud Flow: 3 Years in Disaster....

Hot mud flow in Sidoarjo for the first time burst in Siring village, Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java province on May 29 2006. 200 meters from the well drilling of Lapindo Brantas Inc. in Renokenogo village. For the last three years, hot mud outpouring has reached at an average rate more than 40,000 m3/day, with a temperature of 80 - 90 degrees Celsius. The"mud volcano" in Sidoarjo district has inundated 4 adjacent villages, displaying nearly 7000 people. Almost 12,000 medical treatments have been carries out, mainly for people affected by the release of hydrogen sulphide gas.

The Sidoarjo mud handling board now focusing on overcoming mud spill on the surface, rather than trying to stop the outpouring

There is no effective way of stopping the mud outpours. Some efforts to stop the outpouring that had been done included building a relief well and planting concrete balls. But everything is of no avail, although trillions of IDR had been spent. Thot mud outpouring had reached the stage of cauldron with a rapid process of deformation reaching 4 meters a day.

According to some experts, hot mud flow are geological phenomena due to over pressurized, subsurface mud layer. The cause of the eruption has not yet been established. However, it may be linked to the gas exploration activities by Lapindo Brantas Inc. at the Banjar Panji I well.

Others experts maintained that the disaster has nothing to do with drilling, but is a natural phenomenon, for the reason that the center of the outpours lies 200 meters from the drilling site, and therefore suspected of being triggered by a tectonic quake in Yogyakarta on May 27, 2006.

Picture: Reuters