Customs ban people from Bora's hot springs area
Customs ban people from Bora's hot springs area
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Donggala
The Higi Bora Customary Council has prohibited people from
entering the hot springs area in Bora village, Sigi Biromaru
district in Donggala, about 16 kilometers southeast of the
Central Sulawesi capital, Palu.
The ban is called ombo in local customary law.
Following the magnitude 6.2 earthquake that rocked the
province on Jan. 24, the activity of the original hot spring in
the area had intensified and 13 new hot springs had emerged.
Besides Bora, new hot spring water sources have also appeared
in Bobo village, Palolo district, Donggala, about 25 km southeast
of Palu.
The Higi Bora Customary Council would impose a penalty in the
form of requiring a water buffalo or cow to be sacrificed against
those breaking the regulation.
"Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), no one has violated the
customary law," said head of the council, Abidin Dg Masiri.
The council has erected a fence and assigned two caretakers to
prevent people from reaching the spot. Visitors can only view the
spectacle from 50 meters away.
The council and the Bora village administration are also
collecting an admission fee of Rp 1,000 (11 U.S. cents) from each
visitor.
A caretaker assigned to guard the place, Umar, 34, said that
as many as 125 people visited the hot springs daily.
He said that most of them came just to see whether or not
water in the spring was boiling and giving off steam. They could
apparently feel the heat and the smell of sulfur generated by the
hot springs from 50 meters away.
Chairman of the Palu chapter of the Alkhairaat Islamic
Society, Saggaf Aljufrie, who also heads the Central Sulawesi
chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), urged local
residents not to be overwhelmed by the quake or by the presence
of the hot springs.
He also encouraged residents to constantly pray to God so as
to be protected from tragedies bestowed by God upon humankind.
The charismatic cleric also urged the agencies to immediately
look into the hot springs and publicize the results to the
public.