Every morning, Pasijah, a 55-year-old housewife in Central Java province of Indonesia, hear the sound of the sea. It’s anything but idyllic if that sounds idyllic.
Rejosari Senik, a small village on Java’s northern coast, was once submerged in dry land, but now there is only one of her homes.
She and her family have no plans to leave, despite the fact that Pasijah’s neighbors have abandoned their homes, vegetable plots, and rice fields to the advancing sea over the past few years.
She said, “I do intend to stay here and keep my feelings for this house.”
When she ventures outside Pasijah’s home, which she has lived for 35 years, her feet are soaked in water.
The closest city, Demak, is further away at 19 kilometers (11.8 miles) and is only two kilometers (1.24 miles) away. The only boat travel option is there.
With 81, 000 kilometers of coastline, Indonesia, an archipel of thousands of islands, is especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and erosion.
According to Kadarsah, a climate change official at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency, sea levels increased by an average of 4.25 millimeters (0.16 inches) annually between 1992 and 2024.
The rising sea levels, he said, and the disappearance of some small islands, are one of the indicators of climate change.
Kadarsah also cited the increased groundwater pumping that has made land subsidence along Java’s northern coast worse. The capital of Indonesia, which has around 10 million residents, is where the problem is most acute.
Megaprojects
A 700-kilometer (434-mile) sea wall that would run along the northern coast between Banten and East Java provinces has been a solution that Indonesian authorities have turned to megaprojects for.
Meanwhile, Pasijah and her family have retreated to nature.
Over the past 20 years, she has planted about 15 000 mangrove trees annually.
She paddles out each day in a boat made of blue plastic barrel to care for the bushes and plant new saplings while lowering herself into the deep blue water, which can reach as high as her chest.
Pasijah remarked, “The floodwaters come in waves, gradually, not all at once.” Mangrove trees were necessary after the waters started to rise, so I knew I needed to plant them to spread and shield the house from the winds and waves.
She and her family make a living off of the fish her sons’ sons caught in the nearby market. They assert that they will remain put until the tides are at their lowest point.
Source: Aljazeera
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