ITS offers other method to stop mudflow

Indra Harsaputra ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Surabaya   |  Mon, 12/22/2008 11:06 AM  |  East Java

The 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS) has suggested the adoption of an overhead Bernoulli system as the basis for another proposed method to pump hot mud back into the earth through spiraling pipelines planted on leakage sites.

According to the proponents of this proposed method, the spiraling pipelines planted in the main leakage site and in 100 other sites would gradually slow down the outflow of hot mud until the leakages stopped.

"This new method is only a suggestion which is based on research into the hot mud phenomenon in the past two years," said Djaja Laksana, a member of the ITS team conducting the research.

"This is a contribution of ITS to help handle the mudflow and the President is expected to give a positive response to it."

Djaja was speaking in a workshop to present the research results and recommendations over the weekend.

Previously, the team proposed the disposal of the hot mud into shrimp ponds to form a giant reservoir but this was considered less feasible due to high costs.

"The establishment of the required giant dam (for the Bernouilli concept) is thought to require Rp 40 trillion (US$3.61 billion) while the spiraling steel-made pipelines would cost about Rp 1 trillion," said Djaja.

Previously, Rudi Rubiandini, a construction expert at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) proposed the construction of relief wells to stop the hot mud leakages but the government-sponsored Sidoarjo Mudflow Handling Agency (BPLS) considered this to be potentially ineffective.

BPLS deputy head for technical and operation affairs Soffian Hadi said BPLS would look at the alternative method offered by ITS although it looked less feasible than suggested.

"We have appraised all the methods offered by experts, starting with the firing of stone balls and the construction of relief wells and that of the giant pond but the leakages continue precisely because we do know what is under the earth," he said.

The current method of disposing of the hot mud into the Porong River was therefore the most effective, despite strong opposition from many sides.

Those opposing dumping the mudflow into the river said it would cause the river to silt, trigger floods in the city and affect sea transportation along the Madura Strait.

Meanwhile, hundreds of mudflow victims who have received 25 percent compensation for damaged assets have blockaded the front gate of the Kahuripan Nirwana Village housing estate located near the Sidoarjo tollroad, demanding that Minarak Lapindo Jaya, a subsidiary of Lapindo Brantas Inc., should speed up the construction of houses for them.

"Today is the fifth day we are running the blockade and we will stay here until the housing development is completed so that we can occupy our own house," said Iskandar who has been promised a house at the compound.

He said the mudflow victims would no longer receive Rp 2.5 million each annually in financial aid from Minarak to rent houses because the aid has been "manipulated" by the company to buy time.

"What we need is not rented houses but new houses where we can live freely and humanely," Iskandar said, adding that the mudflow victims should have received houses from Minarak by October but the company had given too many reasons for delays in providing housing for the victims.

Minarak's director of operations Bambang Prasetyio Widodo stressed that the housing development project was still going on and Minarak would hand over the houses to the mudflow victims following completion.

"The housing development is being conducted in phases in accordance with the schedule set by housing developers and Minarak," he said.

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