Day 6 - Sidoarjo mud flow or Lapindo mud

Today was, we were told, going to be a full on day - and it was.  Although we didn't have to move off until 9:00am, so that meant that we were able to have a quite breakfast, visiting the Lapindo Mud flow was always going to be a big day. 

For those of you who are not aware of this environmental disaster here is some of the background information to it.
The mud 'volcano' has been erupting since May 2006, as the result of drilling by the company PT Lapindo Brantas.  They were drilling for gas in the district of Porong in Sidoarjo.  There is much conjecture over the actual cause of the mud eruption, however it would appear that due to a drilling misconduct when quarter height drilling wallpipe was used.  The mud flow continues to spill it's hot, toxic mud out of the drill site, spreading out over the flat plains that surround the drill site.  The mud flows have been contained by large levy banks which have been constructed around the disaster site.

The left hand side shows the levy banks built to hold the mud flows

The impact that this environmental disaster has had on the surrounding area is significant, with 11 villages of up to 300 - 500 people being effected and in many cases having to be relocated from their homes, farms and villages due to the impact of the flows inundating their villages, homes and schools. 

At it's peak the mud flow spewed out 180 000 cubic metres of mud per day.  By August 2011 that had reduced to a flow of 10 000 cubic metres per day.  Along with mud however there are also a number of other elements such as lead, mercury and other heavy metals which are being released by the mud flows, which are poisoning the local environment and the residents which are left close to the mud flow. 

We were addressed by a member of WAHLI - which is an Indonesian Environmental watchdog.  He told us that the exposure to the local environment, based on the testing that WAHLI had done should be limited to 8 hours, due to the mixture of chemicals in the air released from the mud flow, yet the village that we visited was only 800 metres from the levy banks of the mud flow. 

After we viewed the mud flows from the observation platform we headed back to the village to share lunch with the villagers.  At the village the families and children shared lunch with us, and then the children performed for us, singing traditional Indonesian songs and playing drums. 

At the end of the music, we spent time asking the villagers and the representative from WAHLI questions about the disaster.  We then gave the head man some gifts and then left the village on the bus back to Surabaya on the bus. 

It was a huge day, one filled with much emotion at the disaster and the impact that it has had on these innocent Indonesian villagers.