Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – Two ponds built to contain the Sidoarjo mud flow burst Friday, forcing more residents to flee the area, while protesters blocked the nearby Surabaya-Gempol turnpike.
Friday's pond burst was the eighth since work began to stop the flow of mud from the Lapindo Brantas gas exploration site that started on May 19. It left the Mindi and Pejarakan villages in Jabon district covered in mud, which had reached a depth of about two meters as of 4 p.m. Friday.
The mud has spilled into rice fields and irrigation ditches in the area and reached Besuki village, three kilometers away.
When the ponds burst, Pejarakan residents Saiful and Siti started packing their valuables into a borrowed pedicab, but before they had finished their house had been inundated with mud.
"My wife keeps crying. We want to live safely and we don't want to live in a shelter because it will be bad for our children's development. Lapindo is killing us slowly (with the mud)," said Saiful, a 34-year-old father of two.
He said he did not know where his family would live. The Sioarjo administration has announced that all displaced persons need to leave the temporary shelter at Porong market before Idul Fitri in October.
Many people are concerned that other ponds could give way under the mud. A team from the Surabaya Institute of Technology earlier recommended the ponds have walls up to four meters high, but most are now topping out at around six meters.
Riano, who works at the Porong market shelter, said hundreds of Mindi and Pejarakan villagers had come to leave their belongings there.
"They haven't yet registered to live in the shelter. They're still confused and some are preparing to stage a protest to block the Surabaya-Gempol turnpike," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The protesters who blocked the turnpike on Friday also attempted to damage some of its facilities. A local journalist was threatened by some demonstrators, while motorists attempting to pass through the area were angered by the road block.
"We're not entertaining objects shown on television. We're not celebrities, we need serious attention," a protester told journalists.
Separately, East Java Police special crime chief Adj. Sr. Comr. I Nyoman Sukena said Friday he would hand over the files of three suspects in the mudflow case, Lapindo drilling supervisors Subie, Slamet and Rahenold, to the East Java Prosecutor's Office.
Currently, there are 12 suspects implicated in the disaster, although none have been detained because they are involved in the containment effort.
"This case not a simple robbery case where a thief stole a chicken. This is a big case and we want no mistakes. We didn't set a deadline to put them in detention because all of the suspects are cooperative," Nyoman said.