Space Travel News
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
'Slow disaster': Indonesians in sinking village forced to adapt
'Slow disaster': Indonesians in sinking village forced to adapt
By Marchio GORBIANO
Timbulsloko, Indonesia (AFP) July 24, 2023

Indonesian teacher Sulkan leafs through pictures at his small sea-surrounded mosque, remembering a marching band and smiling children who graduated from his kindergarten, standing on a road now submerged by murky, green water.

That is just one of many landmarks in the Javan coastal village of Timbulsloko swallowed by rising tides, which have forced residents to adapt to a new life on the water.

More than 200 people have stayed in one of Indonesia's fastest sinking areas, which has turned from a landscape of lush rice paddies into a network of boardwalks and canoes in an alarming sign of how climate change could upend coastal communities everywhere.

"It's only memories now... there are no such activities any more," said 49-year-old Sulkan, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

"Why? Because the place is already flooded by the tide."

Timbulsloko residents' lives have been drastically altered by rising sea levels, coastal erosion and excessive groundwater extraction making the land sink.

The coastline has also been left vulnerable to floods after locals cut down mangroves for fishing ponds in the 1990s.

Water has since reached five kilometres (three miles) inland around Timbulsloko and the surrounding Demak region, according to Denny Nugroho Sugianto, professor at Diponegoro University.

He called it a "slow disaster" happening before the world's eyes, with data showing some areas around Timbulsloko sinking up to 20 centimetres annually, double the rate recorded in 2010.

"This is the largest rate of land subsidence" ever recorded in the area, he said.

- 'No future' -

Large parts of megalopolis capital Jakarta are expected to be submerged by 2050 for the same reasons, researchers say, but villagers along the Javan coast are on the front lines of the emergency.

Sulkan was forced to move his kindergarten from an old wooden building next to his house to another structure on higher land to prevent it from being lost.

Residents have elevated the floors of their homes by adding soil and then installing wooden decks to keep themselves dry as the floods become more severe.

This has left them with shrinking space, forcing anyone entering to stoop low to avoid bumping their heads.

Sularso, 54, said he had raised his floor three times since 2018, by a total of 1.5 metres, spending around 22 million rupiah ($1,460).

"For me, there is no future," the fisherman told AFP.

"This village... will be gone in less than five years. We can't build, we can't do anything."

He says his floor can still be submerged in water during high tides, leaving him worried high waves could collapse his home.

Housewife Khoiriyah, 42, said she has had difficulty buying groceries or taking her three children to school because of flooded roads.

"Life is harder now. Whenever the water comes inside my house, I always wish I could move out," she said.

Yet the problem is due to become even worse as climate change grinds on.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says an increase of two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times could raise sea levels by 43 centimetres by the next century.

- Raising the dead -

It is not only the living being protected from the rising seas.

The village's cemetery has been raised to prevent it from sinking, with villagers installing a wood fence, nets and tyres to keep the waters at bay.

Residents have also crowdfunded a boardwalk to connect their houses and give them access to their loved ones' graves.

Timbulsloko's younger generation often spend their time outside their home, escaping the floods that haunt their everyday lives.

"Life is monotonous here. The youths often go out as they hate being in their house," 24-year-old Choirul Tamimi said.

Before the use of boats in the village, Tamimi said, he would walk through the flood on his way to work with a change of clothes.

"When I came back from work, it's annoying because I'm not only tired, but I also got wet," he said.

Sugianto called on the government to expand piped water access to residents to reduce groundwater use, and look to sand filling to replace what has been eroded.

"Without restoring the original coastline, we cannot solve this problem sustainably," the professor said.

Yet those who remain in Timbulsloko refuse to surrender to the elements.

Sulkan insists that he will stay to keep his kindergarten open and teach children like the ones who once stood on the now-engulfed road.

"As long as there are still neighbours, there are still houses, I'm staying here," he said.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
India landslide toll jumps to 27, at least 50 missing
New Delhi (AFP) July 23, 2023
The death toll from a massive landslide in India's Maharashtra state jumped to 27 on Sunday, with at least 50 people still missing as rescue teams struggle in lashing rain, officials said. The landslide was triggered by monsoon rains on Thursday, smashing into a village in Raigad district, a hilly and forested site about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Mumbai. Emergency teams have been digging for bodies under the mounds of earth and rubble. "We've so far counted 27 bodies, and about 50 to 60 ... read more

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Senate expresses 'significant concerns' over NASA's Mars sample-retrieval plan

The clays of Mawrth Vallis

Ancient river is helping Perseverance Mars Rover do its work

CHAPEA Mars Simulation program a test bed for food systems and crop cultivation

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
NASA partners with 11 companies for space technology to assist Artemis moon mission

NASA selects SwRI to lead DIMPLE lunar lander/rover instrument suite

China to carry out scientific exploration during manned lunar mission

India launches rocket to land spacecraft on Moon

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
SwRI team identifies giant swirling waves at the edge of Jupiter's magnetosphere

First ultraviolet data collected by ESA's JUICE mission

Unveiling Jupiter's upper atmosphere

ASU study: Jupiter's moon Europa may have had a slow evolution

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
New study reveals Roman Telescope could find 400 Earth-mass rogue planets

Does this exoplanet have a sibling sharing the same orbit

PSI's David Grinspoon Appointed to New NASA Post

Life on Earth didn't arise as described in textbooks

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
AROBS Engineering Takes Lead Role in Space Rider Project Software Verification and Validation

Protecting Space Assets through Innovation: Hyperspace Challenge 2023

SpaceX aborts launch of Starlink satellites

China unveils cutting-edge JF-22 Hypersonic Wind Tunnel facility

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Shenzhou XVI crew set to conduct their first EVA

Timeline unveiled for China's advanced manned spacecraft's inaugural flight

Commercial space projects expected to provide more services in China

China's Shenzhou XVI astronauts conduct fluid physics experiments

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Psyche enters home stretch before launch

Practicing the game-winning asteroid sample catch

Imagine walking on Hera's asteroid

OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample will have new home in Houston

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.