Indonesian mud volcano deepens
Updated
It's been exactly two years since Indonesia's worst ever mud volcano displaced thousands of people on the island of Java.
Now there's new evidence that the volcano is actually collapsing on itself, creating a new series of concerns.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Speakers: Dr Mark Tingay, University of Adelaide School of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Farah Sofa, deputy director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI).
MARCH: Residents of Porong in East Java are furious.
Their homes are being invaded by a stinking sludge and human rights and environmental NGOs say neither the government -nor the company they believe caused the disaster - are taking adequate responsibility for the problem.
Supporters of the victims of the mud volcano disaster are taking to the streets to protest against the inaction.
Farah Sofa, is the deputy director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment
SOFA: Today we call it white dress day where we appeal to public to wear white today for sympathy and solidarity for our brother and sister who are the victims of the mud flow
MARCH: Last year a Jakarta court ruled the Lapindo company, linked to Indonesia's Public Welfare Minister Aburizal Bak-rie who is also Asia's richest man, was not responsible for the disaster.
Despite the ruling, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the company pay compensation to the victims.
But advocacy groups say it's not enough, and some victims are having trouble claiming their benefits.
SOFA: They have to give approval certificates or land certificates which a lot of it is lost or damaged because of the mud flow so there are a lot of families who cannot get their rights properly because they cannot prove their ownership of the property.
MARCH: But while the government, advocacy groups and Lapindo battle it out, scientists have discovered an even greater cause for concern for the residents of Porong.
A new study reveals the amount of material erupting from underground to the surface, is causing the volcano and the surrounding area to sink.
Mark Tingay is from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Adelaide
TINGAY: It's a little bit like digging out a big cavern. When you take out that material the whole area starts to sink. The other thing is that when you remove all the water thats coming out from underground the area starts to sink below it. And on top of that, by putting more and more weight on to the earth surface you start to force the whole area underground, or you start to force the whole area to sink.
MARCH: The volcano has been spewing out approximately 60 olympic-sized swimming pools-worth of mud a day since it erupted in 2006, destroying thousands of homes in the heavily populated area.
But Dr Tingay says this new discovery is a much bigger problem.
TINGAY: The mud actually covers only about seven point five square kilometres at the moment but the area that is slowly sinking down is 22 square kilometres and that is potentially threatening a large number of people.
MARCH: And scientists are unsure if the problem will get worse.
TINGAY: Well we don't know if the whole thing will collapse catastrophically, but we do know that it is sinking fast - at rates of up to five centimetres per day, that is a very rapid rate. In some areas the land surface has sunk by up to 20-metres which is enough to really destabilise the area and if that substance keeps occurring it could threaten over 100-thousand people.
