Rainy Season, BPLS Work on Mud Volcano Dam

The Sidoarjo Mud Mitigation Agency (BPLS) is improving the mud volcano holding ponds in anticipation of the rainy season, including strengthening and raising the dam walls, officials said Sunday, October 11.

“We do all this work in anticipation of the rainy season," said BPLS public relations staff Hengky Listriadi on Sunday. According to him, in the rainy season, there is a risk of the mud overflowing and flooding surrounding areas.

In addition to revamping the embankment, BPLS also fix the canals and pumps used to drain mud from the pond into the Porong River. "The pump machines are ready, also the dredgers," said Hengky.

According to Hengky, there are no problems in preparation before the rainy season this year, because, this time BPLS is focusing on the embankments. "We used to focus on payments of land compensation. Now the compensation is settled, so there will be no more [protests] in case a dam burst," he said.

Hengky added that the volume of mud each year is also declining. Currently the average volume of mud that coming out from the center of the volcano is about 20 thousand cubic meters per day.

Tempo witnessed dozens of trucks carrying materials on the east side of the embankment column. Some workers also seemed to fix the pump canals using heavy equipment.