Indonesia started dumping mud surging from a gas exploration site in central Indonesia into the sea yesterday, hoping to minimize destruction from the disaster that has submerged entire villages and displaced thousands of people.
The mud flow started after an accident occurred deep in a drilling shaft on the seismically charged island of Java four months ago. It now covers more than 450 hectares and is currently being contained by an ever-expanding network of dams.
The government said earlier it would divert the mud into the sea via a river, despite opposition from environmentalists who protested that the mud was toxic.
PHOTO: AP
National Mudflow Disaster Commission spokesman Rudi Novrianto said yesterday's channeling was considered a trial aimed at eventually dumping the mud into the sea for 20 hours each day at a rate of 18.5m3 per second.
Experts say the mud volcano is one of the largest ever recorded on land.
The mud is believed to come from a reservoir more than 5km underground that has been pressurized by tectonic activity or by the accumulation of hydrocarbon gases.
The gas exploration company blamed for the accident, Lapindo Brantas, argues that seismic activity might have caused the mud to break the surface.
At least 20 factories and many hectares of rice fields and prawn farms have been destroyed. More than 10,000 people have been displaced by the disaster.
The environment minister, who had earlier threatened to block efforts to dispose of the mud in the sea on grounds it might kill fish, said the mud was not toxic and that he now supported the plan.
Local shrimp farmers worried the dumping would ruin their ponds.
"We did not get any compensation from the company or the president for our losses," said Ali Subhan of the local shrimp farmer association.
Meanwhile, a fire raged at the headquarters of Indonesia's state-owned gas and oil company for hours Monday, gutting the top three floors of the Jakarta skyscraper before it was finally extinguished.
No one was injured in the fire that began at 4am and raged for more than seven hours, said Pertamina's spokesman Mohamad Harun, who had no immediate information about the cause.
Thirty-six fire trucks, nearly 200 firefighters and three helicopters were used to fight the blaze, which sent flames and dark plumes of smoke shooting from the 19th, 20th and 21st floors, home to the management offices, officials said.
Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto said the fire didn't harm any data crucial to Pertamina's business and one analyst said, even if it did, it should not impact Indonesia's import or export operations.
``Pertamina will have back-up data in other locations,'' said Kurtubi, chairman for the Center of Petroleum & Energy Economic Studies.
The chief of Jakarta's fire department, Martono, said the fire apparently started on the 19th floor of the building and then climbed up. It appeared that the fire detection system malfunctioned, he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
RSS