Indonesia mud flow poses no health threat -minister

JAKARTA, July 14 (Reuters) The noxious mud oozing out of an exploratory oil well in Indonesia's East Java province that has inundated several villages, is not hazardous, the country's health minister said on Thursday.

Around 8,000 people have been displaced from their homes near the well located just south from Indonesia's second city of Surabaya and hundreds of them have been treated for breathing problems since the hot mud first appeared in late May.

The mud flow has not yet stopped and hospital officials have said the thick black sludge giving off sulphurous fumes has left scores of people vomiting.

However, Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said yesterday after visiting the displaced residents that the mud might be a nuisance but it was no health threat.

''The mud is fine as long as one is not buried in it. There has been no serious impact. There have been no serious diseases,'' Supari said in an interview with Jakarta-based Radio Elshinta.

''There have been breathing diseases but the prevalence is similar to normal days and the diarrhoea level is at a similar number,'' said the minister.

''We have detailed lab results and from what I saw there were no dangerous signs. It is difficult to connect this mud to what the residents are complaining about. The mud is not in the category of hazardous,'' she said.

The case has highlighted the country's chequered environmental record in exploiting resources, and authorities have struggled for weeks to plug the mud flowing from cracks in the ground in the East Java regency of Sidoarjo.

The torrent has inundated swathes of land in four villages and fouled many shrimp ponds dotting coastal Sidoarjo, famous in Indonesia for its shrimp crackers.

An oil industry watchdog official has said the mud flow that began at the end of May could have been triggered by a crack at about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) in the Banjar Panji-1 exploration well, operated by Indonesia's Lapindo Brantas. It has a 50-per cent share in the well.

Lapindo is a unit of PT Energi Mega Persada, partly owned by the Bakrie Group, which is controlled by the family of Indonesia's chief social welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie.

Australia's Santos Ltd., which has said it is insured against the problem, has an 18-per cent interest, while Indonesia's largest listed energy firm, PT Medco Energi International Tbk, holds the remaining 32 per cent.

Reuters SHB DB0941