No relief in sight for Sidoarjo mudflow refugees

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 05/29/2007 8:38 AM

Hot mud began gushing from a Lapindo Brantas gas well in Sidoarjo, East Java, one year ago today. The mudflow has submerged nearby villages and caused an estimated Rp 27 trillion (about US$30 billion) in material losses, and the mud keeps coming. The Jakarta Post correspondents ID Nugroho and Indra Harsaputra take a look at life in Sidoarjo today and what the future may hold for residents.

Pi'iyah, 45, is still quick with a smile despite the hardships she has suffered since being forced from her home in Porong district last year by the Sidoarjo mudflow.

""Why should I grieve for all these uncertainties?"" said Pi'iyah, who sells fruit at Pasar Baru, where she and some 8,000 other mudflow victims have been accommodated for much of the last year.

Selling fruit gives Pi'iyah just enough money for her and her two children to survive. Like the others in the market, she and her children are being housed in a small kiosk that has been turned into a makeshift room for several families.

The gushing mud, which continues unabated, has destroyed everything in its path. Homes, factories, rice fields, schools, places of worship. Most residents were only able to save a few possessions before fleeing.

""My home has disappeared,"" Pi'iyah said, adding that her house was located more than a kilometer from the gas exploration well at the center of the mudflow.

The displaced say they have lost all faith the government and Lapindo Brantas, the owner of the gas exploration well, will deliver on promised compensation and assistance to reclaim their lives.

About 3,000 people lost their jobs when the mud destroyed factories and other businesses. An unknown number of farmers are out of work after losing their land to the mud.

The hot sludge reached Ronokenongo village in November, causing a gas pipe belonging to state-owned oil company Pertamina to burst.

More than 10,000 buildings in the villages of Ronokenongo and neighboring Siring, Jatirejo, Kedungbendo and Ketapang villages are now at the bottom of a sea of mud.

In addition to fruit, Pi'iyah also sells soft drinks and snacks. Because the majority of her customers are fellow refugees, she is in no position to say no to desperate neighbors who come to buy food on credit, promising to pay at the end of the month when their government aid arrives.

One regular customer is Tukani, 54, a widow with three children aged between 6 and 15.

""None of my kids have a job. I don't know how I can survive in the coming months,"" she said. ""I have to go into debt to survive.""

She is hopeful the government and Lapindo will eventually deliver on promised financial compensation for her lost property. Tukani says she will open a road-side food stall with some of the money.

Experts cannot say when the mudflow might possibly stop. Some have theorized the mud may continue flowing for as long as 30 years.

Amien Widodo from Surabaya's 10 November Institute warns the weight of all the mud is causing the ground to subside, endangering buildings and opening the way for the emergence of new mud springs.

""The longer it takes to stop the flow, the more likely this becomes.""

Geologist Teguh Hariyanto says if the land in mud-affected areas continues subsiding, it could allow seawater to seep into the area because the ocean is only a few kilometers away.

""We have to anticipate the worst,"" he said.

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