FOR over 100 days, hot mud has been gushing day and night in the Porong district of Sidoarjo. As new gushers appear, a rising sea of dark water continues to engulf surrounding buildings. On Friday of last week, the village of Mindi, about 1 kilometer from the source of the mud, was flooded.

The mud, which began to gush from the gas exploration field of PT Lapindo Brantas, a subsidiary of the Bakrie Group, on May 29, has presently engulfed 1,810 ho