Living with the Lapindo disaster

Sarah Rennie

Bambang’s real life nightmare began on 28 May 2006 when the mining company Lapindo was drilling at the Banjar-Panji 1 exploration well in the district of Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java. A huge explosion deep within the earth caused vast quantities of hot mud to erupt from the mine and spread rapidly across the surrounding district (see ‘Un-natural disaster ’ and  Postcards from a wasteland ).

The site of the disaster is now a sea of mud.

By June Bambang’s home was disappearing from sight, as tens of thousands of cubic metres of toxic mud inundated his village. Along with several thousand other residents of Renokenongo and surrounding villages, he and his family were forced to flee to the nearby Pasar Porong Baru market development site. The following year Bambang embarked on a gruelling campaign to seek compensation from Lapindo. He travelled to Jakarta to try to negotiate with heads of government and company executives, but had little luck. This legal and political battle is not the only obstacle faced by Bambang and other mud-flow refugees. On the day we met at the refugee post in Pasar Porong, Bambang was pressed by more urgent concerns.

A woman sits in front of her new home.