Indonesia mud lake draws tourists to disaster zone

PORONG, Indonesia (Reuters) - Mud tourism is about the onlything that is flourishing in Porong, an East Java suburb thattwo years ago became a disaster zone when hot volcanic mudbegan spewing from the site of a gas exploration well.

Today, the inland sea of mud is twice the size of CentralPark in New York. Enough mud to fill 40 Olympic-sized swimmingpools spews out every day and has already displaced 50,000people, submerged homes, factories and schools.

The local economy has been devastated by the disaster,although, there are a few minor exceptions such as a localpharmacy that has seen sales soar as people seek treatment forallergies. The stench of sulphur hangs in the air from thegrey, watery mud, although authorities deny it is a healthhazard.

"Business is good," said a cashier at Porong Pharmacy.Nearby, motorbike taxis charge high prices to drive curioustourists to the towering levees of rock and earth that holdback the mud. Others hawk DVDs of the disaster.

But they are a rarity in a district that has seen itseconomy swallowed up by the expanding mud lake covering about6.5 square km (2.5 sq mile). The mud has badly affectedcommunications and transport links between East Java and thekey port city of Surabaya.

The whole mess has become a big embarrassment for theadministration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as energyfirm PT Lapindo Brantas, whose drilling is blamed by some topscientists for the disaster, is partly owned by businesseslinked to the family of chief social welfare minister AburizalBakrie.

Lapindo disputes its drilling caused the disaster, linkingit to tectonic activity after a powerful earthquake in CentralJava two days before the mud flow started.

Although a team of leading British, American, Indonesianand Australian scientists, writing in the journal Earth andPlanetary Science Letters, said they were certain the gasdrilling caused the disaster as pressurized fluid fractured thesurrounding rock. Mud spurted out of cracks instead of thewellhead.

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The government has ordered Lapindo to pay more than $400million (227 million pounds) in compensation to the victims andto cover the damage.

Bakrie, Indonesia's richest man worth over $9 billionaccording to Globe Magazine, said the firm was not responsiblebut would still pay compensation and build new housing.

That is little consolation though to businessmen such asMursidi, whose factories were buried in the mud, and who is yetto receive much help as he struggles to pick up the pieces.

"The office has vanished, the factories have also vanished.So we have to start this business from zero," said a wearysounding Mursidi, who goes by one name like many Indonesians.

"The biggest impact is on mental recovery. We don't haveany will any more," added the 43-year-old Mursidi. Out of 96 ofhis former workers, only 13 remained as the others hadscattered since the disaster, he added.

Mud volcanoes occur in other parts of Indonesia as well asin places ranging from China to Italy, but the one in Porong isthought to be world's biggest, and there appears to be littlethat can stop it.

Richard Davies, a geologist at Britain's University ofDurham who co-wrote the journal article on the causes of thedisaster, has said the mud flow could affect the area for yearsto come and warned the central part of the volcano wascollapsing.

There is simmering anger among those that remain.

On a main street facing the mud area hangs a sign saying:"Put Lapindo on trial! Confiscate Bakrie's assets!".

Protests, often involving hundreds of people, break outsporadically amid calls for Lapindo to pay the remaining 80percent of compensation after an upfront 20 percent payment andto compensate residents in areas newly affected by the mud.

The company is obliged to pay compensation in an areadesignated under a presidential decree, but responsibilityoutside this area is murky and some locals have also refused toaccept what they regard as derisory compensation.

Yuniwati Teryana, a spokeswoman for Lapindo, said the firmwas only obliged to compensate residents but detailed in anemail 163 billion rupiah (9 million pounds) of aid she said thefirm had made to businesses and workers affected by the mud.

PT Energi Mega Persada, owned by the Bakrie Group,indirectly controls Lapindo, which holds a 50 percent stake inthe Brantas block from where the mud came. PT Medco EnergiInternational Tbk holds a 32 percent stake and Australia-basedSantos Ltd the rest.

As well as factories, the mud also destroyed rice paddiesand affected shrimp ponds in Sidoarjo regency, famous inIndonesia for its shrimp crackers.

The government has also been left with a huge bill fordamage to infrastructure, including the re-routing of a gaspipeline, railways, electricity networks and roads.

Apart from building dykes to try and contain the mud, themud flow has also been channelled into the nearby Porong Riverand out to sea, causing sedimentation and alarmingenvironmentalists.

Indonesia's national planning agency estimated last yearthe disaster had caused 7.3 trillion rupiah of losses, a figurethat could rise to 16.5 trillion rupiah.

Businesses just outside the mud-stricken area have also notbeen spared.

"It's been quiet for two years because the buyers moved toGod knows where," said Lenny, a clerk at a local supermarket.

(Additional reporting by Heri Retnowati in Surabaya andAndreas Ismar and Olivia Rondonuwu in Jakarta; Editing by MeganGoldin)