SBS Dateline | Muddy Hell

A dozen villages have been swallowed up by a volcano of mud in Indonesia, but four years on from the start of the eruption, the dispute over what’s causing it bubbles on.

Some experts say a drilling accident at a nearby gas site has caused gas to constantly push mud to the surface from a depth of 3,000 metres, but the energy giant Lapindo Brantas blames an earthquake.

The company was cleared of responsibility by Indonesia’s Supreme Court last year, but was still ordered to pay compensation. People in East Java though say they’ve seen little help.

Video journalist Adrian Brown visits the vast lake of mud, which can even be seen from space, to hear the blame game that’s left villagers living in makeshift huts and an ecological disaster that seems to be growing bigger by the day.

WATCH - Click to see Adrian's story.

BLOG - Adrian gives a first-hand account of seeing for himself the huge mud lake and the people it's affected.

REPLAY - Ginny Stein also reported on Indonesia's mud volcano for Dateline in Mud Slinging in April 2007. Click to see her report again.