Mud Takes Root in Sidoarjo

Reporter Trish Anderton first wrote about the Sidoarjo mud disaster for The Jakarta Post Weekender in May. In August she returned to find the calamitous becoming more and more ordinary.

There is order and routine in the mud zone, from displaced villagers collecting donations, to a network of pipes and technical stations that dominates the stark landscape. 

"It's impossible to stop taking photographs," she said. "I only quit because I suddenly sank into a mudhole up to my knees, and I got my hands muddy scrambling out!"

The landscape is pocked by technical stations like this relief well. A significant portion of Porong has become a full-time mud transport and storage facility; disaster is the major industry.

A service economy clings to the outskirts of the mud zone. The men in the front are selling VCDs about the disaster; those in the background offer motorcycle tours.

Displaced villagers solicit donations.

A small but steady flow of visitors trickles through to stare at the mud and the ghost villages.

The remnants of doorways lead to remnants of other doorways, which lead nowhere.

Even inundated houses have been stripped of their roofs and bricks.

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