THE red signboard reads “Danger. Gas. No Smoking.” A police line put up before the vacant land reinforces the warning.

On the empty land in the western part of Siring village, a metal pipe 20 centimeters in diameter stands upright, as if pointing at the sky. This pipe is solidly cemented at its base. Right below it, another pipe of the same diameter lies horizontally toward a sewer.These two pipes were set up by the Sidoarjo Mud Control Boa