. Earth Science News .
Indonesian company says settlement reached with mud volcano victims

File photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
Jakarta (AFP) Dec 4, 2008
Indonesian energy company Lapindo said Thursday it had reached a compensation settlement with thousands of victims of a mud volcano which erupted from one of its gas wells.

The company, part of the business empire of billionaire Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, said it would pay 30 million rupiah (2,250 dollars) a month to each displaced family until all outstanding compensation is settled.

The volcano has swamped 12 villages in east Java with stinking grey sludge since it burst from a Lapindo well two years ago, killing 13 people and displacing about 36,000 people.

Lapindo said 8,000 families were eligible for the payments, which would begin this month and will reportedly range from 100-150 million rupiah per family.

The deal was clinched late Wednesday after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, facing an election battle for a second term next year, reportedly lost patience with the company's failure to compensate the displaced families.

"All the victims who choose the cash and carry scheme, including those who were not represented by the negotiating group, are eligible to receive monthly settlements," company spokeswoman Yuniwati Teryana said.

"But the victims still need to show us the legal certificates of the property they lost in order to receive the cash."

The company was supposed to pay the compensation in a lump-sum by December but the global financial crisis and debt troubles within the Bakrie family business empire slowed down the process, officials said.

"Because the global financial crisis has affected Lapindo, the company will settle the ... compensation through monthly payments," Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto told reporters late Wednesday.

Lapindo projected in November that it would disburse less than eight trillion rupiah (680 million dollars) for compensation and mud mitigation efforts. Independent estimates of the cleanup alone top four billion dollars.

It blames an earthquake for the disaster but international researchers have found that the company's exploratory drilling triggered the massive mud geyser.

Some displaced families expressed fears the settlement would only apply to a group of less than 2,000 victims represented by the negotiating team.

"I'm not sure whether my group, which represents about 1,200 victims over four villages, will be a part of the new settlement plan," displaced villager Suwito said.

Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Climate change overwhelming disaster relief: agencies
Poznan, Poland (AFP) Dec 3, 2008
Climate change is overwhelming the capacity of relief agencies to cope with people made sick or homeless by natural disasters, humanitarian groups warned here on Wednesday.







  • Disasters: Bangladesh, NKorea most hit in 2007
  • Indonesian company says settlement reached with mud volcano victims
  • Avalanches - Triggered From The Valley
  • Climate change overwhelming disaster relief: agencies

  • EU talks on climate change heat up summit nears
  • EU climate efforts will fail without global deal: Merkel
  • Analysis: Skeptics renew climate debate
  • Prehistoric Climate Can Help Forecast Future Changes

  • UNESCO Signs Partnership With JAXA
  • GIS Development Gives Award To Institute Of Photogrammetry
  • NASA Selects NOAA GOES-R Series Spacecraft Contractor
  • Ball Aerospace Completes CDR For Landsat's Operational Land Imager

  • UN climate talks: strut your stuff and save the planet
  • KEMA Advances Understanding Of Energy Storage Technologies
  • Self-powered devices may soon be possible
  • Wind Turbines Generate More Green Jobs In Ontario

  • Zimbabwe pleads for help amid growing cholera epidemic
  • Indonesia's vast Papua in the grip of Asia's worst AIDS crisis
  • Study checks toll of S. Africa's AIDS plan
  • More funding failing to curb AIDS epidemic in Russia: official

  • Study Of Oldest Turtle Fossil
  • Road Kill Leads To Study Of Highway Impact On Environment
  • Land Iguanas Under Continuing Threat On Galapagos Archipelago
  • Bacteria Preserve Fossils

  • Chlorine leak at Siberian chemical factory: report
  • Vo Quy, father of Vietnam's environmental movement
  • 'Cancer village' the dark side of Vietnam's industrial boom
  • Light Pollution Offers New Global Measure Of Coral Reef Health

  • Ecological Impact Of African Cities
  • Gene found to protect against lung cancer
  • Sleep Helps People Learn Complicated Tasks
  • Americans' midsection a weighty issue

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement