|
|
 |
On May 29th 2006, just two days after one of Indonesia's most destructive earthquakes hit the city of Yogyakarta leaving 6,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless, another disaster struck and continues to wreak havoc to this day.
This disaster was a mud volcano which suddenly erupted in a rice field near the township of Porong in the Sidoarjo Regency of East Java. The world would come to know this new mud volcano as LUSI, a compendium of the Indonesian word for mud (lumpur) and the town near which LUSI was born (Sidoarjo).
LUSI was by no means your typical mud volcano and no one was to know that nearly five years on this volcano would still be pouring forth up to 150,000 m3 of hot mud per day, eventually flooding an area of almost 800 hectares with a depth of mud ranging from 8-20m.
LUSI was, and still is, seemingly unstoppable. Since the eruption some 40,000 people have lost their homes, belongings and livelihoods, not to mention in some cases their lives. Whole villages have been inundated with mud, infrastructure destroyed and reputations left in ruins. No one knows at this point in time just how long this volcano will remain active. Some geological experts say it could continue to erupt and grow for another 40 -100 years and beyond.
It is rare for any disaster to receive as much attention, nor create as much controversy as LUSI. Due to the controversy over the trigger of this mud volcano affected communities have not received the much needed international aid that is normally the case with other disasters in developing nations.
With the continuing mudflow and rapid subsidence of the surrounding area the potential for further loss and destruction of thousands more homes, livelihoods and infrastructure is a daily reality and of paramount concern to the people of the area and all those involved in the management of LUSI. |
