Lapindo Victims Portal

On the 29th of May 2006, a gas explosion occurred at the site of drilling activities conducted by exploration company Lapindo Brantas in the densely populated district of Sidoarjo, East Java. A hot mud volcano was born, causing a disaster similar with Pompei in its form, and affecting as many people as hurricane Katrina.

Now, almost two years later, the mud-flow continues, and has displaced up to 50,000 people and wiped out 12 villages. The mud flow has left thousands unemployed with inadequate access to food and safe water and living in crowded refugee camps. Everyday 60 Olympic sized swimming pools worth of mud spurts from the ground, and no one knows when it will stop.

The mud continues to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousand others peoples who still living nearby. Research by several internatinal NGOs have found extremely high levels of carcinogenic substances in the mud. The volume of the mud spew also threaten to clog major river in the area, that will cause further environmental catasthropic unimaginable in this modern time.

The victims of the mudflow have received little national or international assistance. They have fallen in the void between government and corporate responsibility, most likely caused by the political complication behind this disaster. The company that caused the disaster, is owned by the person who happens to be a minister of the department, that should have been responsible to handle the disaster.

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