BANGKA from the air appears to be covered in potholes. Blue water pools, big and small, are scattered all over the island. They are abandoned tin mines.

Bangka is one of Indonesia’s tin producers. Large companies and small-scale businesses are racing to excavate the earth and extract the commodity within.

What remain are pits that are later transformed into lakes brimming with rainwater. Local people call them kolong (literally, hollow space)