Toxic Oil Well Mud Sickens & Displaces Thousands In Indonesia - Reuters

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SIDOARJO, Indonesia - Noxious mud oozing from around an oil well since late May has driven about 8,000 people from their homes in Indonesia's East Java province and left hundreds gasping for breath or vomiting, according to local officials.

"Factories, houses, fields, freeways have been drowned by the mud which is spread over more then 200 ha (494 acres)," Win Hendrarso, head of Sidoarjo regency, an area near the city of Surabaya where the well is located, told reporters late on Thursday. In addition to forcing people out of their homes, the thick black sludge giving off sulphurous fumes has left hundreds of people complaining of breathlessness and vomiting, said one hospital official.

"Until this day, we are still taking care of hospitalised patients. Most of them suffer from respiratory obstruction," said Amir Basuki, another hospital official in Surabaya.

The case is the latest in a series of environmental traumas linked to energy and mining companies operating in the resource-rich country, which has been criticised for haphazard enforcement of operating guidelines. Authorities have been struggling to plug the mud flow that emerged from cracks in the ground around the Banjar Panji-1 exploration well, which is operated by Indonesia's Lapindo Brantas, which has a 50 percent share.

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