Aerial View of The Site. The Smoke is The Center of The Burst

This time, Indonesia-Guide.net article is actually not connected to tourism in Indonesia at all. In fact this article is dedicated for the victims of this natural catastrophe caused by human-error. A catastrophe that changes the life of the people in East Java province especially in Porong, a small town located 20 KM south of Surabaya.

The economic and daily life of the people in Porong started to change in May 27th 2006 when a burst of mud appears in the drilling site of Lapindo Brantas, an energy company which tried to build a rig to explore Porong’s natural resources.

At first the mud bursting from the drilling site reaches about 5,000 cubic meters per day, then smaller burst showed up near the main burst hole. These smaller burst then morphed with the main burst and throwing up more and more mud every day, and reached 50,000 cubic meters per day.

This House Can\'t Be Saved

The overwhelming mud spilled from the drilling site start to flood the surrounding area, drowning houses and industrial building near them. Lapindo Brantas took an action of building geotextile mud barriers around the site, but the amount of mud was so overwhelming and more and more building were drowned completely.

The mud also drowned the main highway connecting Surabaya and the industrial city of Pandaan. Transportation was virtually cut, the time for the goods to be shipped to the Surabaya port of Tanjung Perak were doubled even tripled because everyone who wished to travel between Surabaya and Pandaan had to take a detour. The detour road was unable to support the massive flow of vehicle, and traffic jams were inevitable.

Victims of The Porong Mud Flow. They Lost Their Home in The Mud

So many homes were drowned and completely destroyed everything they got. The mud completely drowned eight villages, forcing more than 12,000 people to lose their home, and their jobs. The mud had drowned with a total affected area of 850 ha (3.3 sq mi) in 2007.

Until this day the article is written, the mud burst is still spilling out its guts, and we don’t really know when it will stop or even a way to stop it. The government and Lapindo Brantas had already worked together, but the only thing they do is just strengthening the barrier to avoid a mud leak or worst barrier failing. The local scientists have tried some methods to stop it, but until now it shows that they’re effort was pointless.

The locals call this catastrophe “Lumpur Lapindo”, we addressed it to the company who made this happen. Everybody in Surabaya, Porong, Sidoarjo, and Malang suffers alot because of this. People living in Surabaya can’t get to Malang, which is a favourite recreational city. Malang lost most of their local tourist, tourism industry suffer the most out of this. The Porong mud burts hinders tourist coming to Malang, mostly because of the horrible traffic jam they have to face.

Dead Environment

Before this catastrophe it would only take 2 hours to reach Malang from Surabaya, vice versa. Now, worst case scenario can take up to 10 hours stuck in the road. Porong and Sidoarjo got some pilled problems because of this.

If you’re traveling to the city of Malang, or trying to get to Mt. Bromo, then you will come across this site in your journey.

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