Two years after the fact, people in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo are still trying to cope with the mudflow disaster that changed their lives. A piece of good news is that some families have received 20 percent of their compensation from Lapindo Brantas Inc., the firm that owned the mining site from which gas leaked and allegedly played a role in causing the mudflow.
However, the mudflow has since spread to surrounding areas, and newly affected residents have received no compensation from either the government or Lapindo. The Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat, Indra Harsaputra and Wahyoe Boedhiwardana filed these reports from a recent visit to the site.
The disaster which began with the emergence of a single gas leak at a mining site on May 29, 2006, has spread beyond the four initially affected villages to eleven neighboring villages in Porong, Sidoarjo regency.
More than 10,000 families who lived in the villages of Siring, Jatirejo, Kedungbendo and Renokenongo now only have memories of their homes and farmland. All are buried under a lake of hardening mud with a surrounding embankment.
New gas leaks have appeared in the eleven surrounding villages outside the mud lake, threatening thousands of other residents. "Suddenly a leak sprouts from under a tile in the kitchen," a resident says. Up to 210 displaced families in Besuki, Jabon district, are living in huts along a section of the unused toll road, seeking justice over their abandoned assets.
No one, including the company which owned the mining site of the first gas leak, Lapindo Brantas Inc., and the government-backed Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency, knows exactly what is really happening beneath the mud.
If you stand at the disaster site along the edge of the lake and watch workers and their heavy equipment, talking with the "mud refugees" and locals, you feel the stark contrast of the scale of the disaster and the apathy surrounding it.
Those who do respond point their fingers at Lapindo, an oil and gas company controlled by the family of Aburizal Bakri, currently coordinating minister for people's welfare. The firm has been accused of shutting the mouths of relevant authorities, including local elites, with money.
The company denies such allegations and Aburizal himself supports views that the mudflow was caused by a natural disaster.
A government investigation team has yet to come up with a conclusive decision. Various experts have offered diverse views and an array of proposals to stop the continuous stream of mud.
Those who maintain the mudflow was triggered by natural causes say it had to do with a volcanic eruption related to the strong earthquake in Yogyakarta and Central Java in May 2006.
Victims and critics say the government has been too slow and has yet to show a strong political commitment to settling the problem. Besides setting up the mitigation agency, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a 2007 presidential regulation which held Lapindo responsible for the mudflow and its physical and social impacts.
The regulation ordered Lapindo to immediately disburse 20 percent of a compensation package to residents of the four devastated villages. The remaining 80 percent was to be paid in April of this year, one month before the contract of residents' rents expired. But so far the remaining 80 percent has not been paid and no action has been taken against Lapindo. Those in charge of the compensation say they are still crosschecking data.
Observers surmise that perhaps the government considered the regulation the only measure possible at that time – in the absence of a trial. As things stand, it is not clear, in the event of a similar case, to what extent a corporation should be held responsible. Neither is it clear just when and if the state should take over and let its citizens pay through the state budget.
Several Lapindo executives were held as suspects, but after two years there has been no progress from the police questioning.
Despite pressure from the legislature, whose own fact-finding team concluded the mudflow was a natural disaster, the government remains firm on the presidential regulation which critics considered protective of Lapindo.
The government has yet to rule on the plight of thousands of residents of the later-affected villages, who are not covered by the presidential regulation. Residents of West Siring, Mindi, Besuki and Jatirejo have been living for four months in sparing huts, joining the 2,000 inhabitants of Porong market that have received no food aid since May 1.
Lapindo says it has spent Rp 3.2 trillion to reconstruct damaged infrastructure and the environment, provide humanitarian aid to victims and also the 20 percent of total compensation. The remaining 80 percent of compensation could reach Rp 5.6 trillion.
The government has also allocated Rp 2.11 trillion from the state budget to move damaged infrastructure such as the toll road, the Porong highway and gas pipelines.
Meanwhile thousands of residents still live in hazardous, fetid surroundings.
Chronological Events
May 29, 2006: A fissure spouting hot mud emerges 200 meters from Lapindo Brantas' Banjar Panji 1 well in Siring village, Porong district in Sidoarjo regency.
June 14, 2006: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tells Lapindo Brantas to appropriately compensate residents affected by the mudflow in Sidoarjo. The President also orders an investigation into the environmental impacts caused by the company's gas exploration activities.
June 17, 2006: Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro orders Lapindo Brantas to compensate victims.
June 20, 2006: Vice President Jusuf Kalla, in front of thousands of mudflow victims, asks Nirwan Bakrie, director of the Bakrie Group, to honor its social responsibilities to mudflow victims.
July 8, 2006: Energy Minister Purnomo says compensation will not come from oil and gas sector mitigation fund. Rather, all costs will be covered by Lapindo Brantas.
Sept. 8, 2006: The government forms the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency, tasked with dealing with the mudflow, such as plugging the fissure and handling social issues caused by the mudflow.
Oct. 15, 2006: The area within a two-kilometer radius of the fissure is designated off-limits by the Indonesian Geological Association.
Aug. 21, 2007: A House plenary session questions the supervisory team following its assessment. The House considers formally questioning the government over its handling of the mudflow. The supervisory team is given three months to complete its work.
Sept. 15, 2007: The government forms the Sidoarjo Mudflow Settlement supervisory task force to run for a period of 75 days.
Feb. 10, 2008: An embankment collapses and sparks a gas pipeline fire in Jatirejo village.
May 28, 2008: Mud discharge from the fissure intensifies and emits toxic and flammable gases, including methane.
- From various sources