Singking Recommendation in Lapindo Mud

By Edy M Ya'kub (Surabaya/Antara) - Seven years have elapsed since the man-made Lapindo mud disaster claimed numerous lives and displaced tens of thousands of people in Sidoarjo, East Java. But the recommendations about compensation for the victims seem as if they have sunk deeper into the mire. "It seems that we do not live in a country whose government cares to its people," said Hartawati, a mud victim of Siring village in Porong, Sidoarjo, on Tuesday. Asked how she felt, the victim of PT Lapindo Brantas gas exploration zone said the village where she live had been engulfed by the thick mud and disappeared from geographic map since May 29, 2006. "But never before has the government asked the mud victims about their present fate and condition. If the country does not have the attention, to whom we should pass our problems," Hartawati asked. It is reasonable for her to make such a statement because still a lot of compensation has not been paid. In reality, she said the Presidential Regulation No.14/2007 and No.48/2008 on the compensation for victims of Lapindo mud has already expired. "Many of our children dropped out of school, while the compensation we received in part has all been spent on medical treatment and housing contract that is getting more expensive," Hartawati said. To make both ends meet, she pointed out that many of the mud victims have tried to get extra money by becoming motorcycle taxi drivers but it was not enough for living. The fate of the Harwati and her friends still just 'drowned' in the mud of Lapindo since it started to flow up on May 29, 2006, and buried their villages and houses. Besides Hartawati and her friends, the voice of the experts and researchers who did the research about the cause of mud disaster without any personal interest also went unheard. For example, Bosman Batubara, a researcher at Gajah Mada University's Faculty of Technical Geology, has presented accurate data about the cause of Lapindo mud disaster but nobody cared about it. "Effort to link the cause of Lapindo mud disaster in Sidoarjo with that of a deadly earthquake in Yogyakarta is a way how to equate natural disaster with industrial disaster," Bosman said. Pointing out the fact, Bosman said the earthquake in Yogyakarta had the magnitude of only 4 kilo-Pasca, while to reach Sidoarjo from Yogyakarta at a distance of 280 km, it would need a magnitude of 10 kilo-Pasca. "Thus, scientifically it is impossible that Sidoarjo mud flow was caused by natural disaster," Bosman noted. The uncontrollable mudflow had affected agriculture and industries in its surrounding areas, but the cause of the disaster remains obscure. Even today, the debate over the cause of the mud disaster continues relentlessly, and it remains unclear whether a drilling activity or a natural disaster unleashed the mud. At a conference of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists held in Cape Town in 2008, scientists from around the world voted that the disaster was triggered by the drilling activity. But in September 2009, the House of Representatives said that they had found no evidence of negligence on the part of Lapindo and declared that the mudflow was caused by a natural disaster. Sofian Hadi, a member of the Indonesian Geologists Association and the deputy operation officer of the Sidoarjo Mud Management Board (BPLS), said at the time that the drilling activity was not the cause of the mud disaster. The BPLS was formed by the central government as a follow up to a decision made by Indonesia's Supreme Court. "In my opinion, the drilling activity is not the reason for the mudflow, because a 1,500 horsepower drill engine cannot activate a breakage in the earth," Sofian remarked. He further stated that findings from the observation countermeasures team (TP2LS) - formed on September 4, 2007 and lead by the vice president of the House of Representatives, Priyo Budi Santoso - concluded during a plenary council meeting on September 29, 2009 that the mudflow was a natural phenomenon. The natural phenomenon, according to an observation made by the countermeasures team, has also occurred in other regions and countries. Now that the Surabaya-based Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) Center for the Study of the Terrestrial, Disasters, and Climate Change ((PSKBPI) has issued a book, "Evaluation of Mud Flow Disaster Alternatives in Sidoarjo Regency, Indonesia" which was compiled by two researchers from ITS and one foreign researcher. In principle, it was said that the management of Lapindo mud can be conducted by four ways, namely tackling, channeling through the pump, the making of a special canal, and channeling through pipes and pumps. "But channeling the mud through the pipes is the cheapest way to overcome the mud flow at the PT Lapindo Brantas exploration zone," said an ITS civil engineer I Putu Artama Wiguna. (by Edy M Ya'kub/editing by Otniel Tamindael)