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.
China has possibly committed “genocide” in its treatment of Uighurs and other minority Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a report on Thursday. The bipartisan commission said that new evidence had last year emerged that “crimes against humanity — and possibly genocide — are occurring” in Xinjiang. It also accused China of harassing Uighurs in the US. China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills, which others have called concentration camps. The UN says that
A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000km Pacific Ocean crossing from the US to find a new home in Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it. Kevin Celli-Bird yesterday said he discovered that the exhausted bird that arrived in his Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 last year had disappeared from a race in the US state of Oregon on Oct. 29. Experts suspect the pigeon that Celli-Bird has named Joe — after US president-elect Joe Biden — hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific. Joe’s feat has attracted the attention
The Polish Supreme Court on Friday quashed a lower court’s green light for the extradition of a businessman to China for alleged fraud, a charge he has denied, saying that he is being targeted for supporting Falun Gong. Polish authorities took Chinese-born Swedish citizen Li Zhihui, now 53, into custody in 2019 on an international warrant issued by China for alleged non-payment in a business deal, Krzysztof Kitajgrodzki, his Polish lawyer, told reporters. Following the Supreme Court ruling, the case would return to a lower appellate court for review. Kitajgrodzki told reporters that it was still not a given that his client
DELIVERING HOPE: The Japanese PM pledged to push ahead with plans to stage the Games, despite polls showing about 80% think they will not or should not happen Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday vowed to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control and hold the already postponed Olympic Games this summer with ample protection. In a speech opening a new session of parliament, Suga said that his government would revise laws to make disease prevention measures enforceable with penalties and compensation. Early in the pandemic, Japan was able to keep its caseload manageable with nonbinding requests for businesses to close or operate with social distancing, and for people to stay at home, but recent weeks have seen several highs in new cases per day, in part blamed on eased attitudes
RSS