Asia

Time is running out for Indonesian fishing village as it battles coastal erosion

adminAugust 29, 20205 Mins read83 Views

BETING, West Java: With a watchful eye, Sanusi scanned the water in front of him as he drove his wooden boat along an unnamed narrow offshoot of West Javas Citarum River.

The tide is low, revealing mangrove tree roots jutting out of the water, binding themselves to the loose and slowly eroding mud along the riverbank.

Sanusi slowed his boat as he neared his village Beting, not wanting the propellers attached to his boat to catch the many tree trunks and garbage in the water.

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As the boat crawled further downstream, houses in various stages of decay started to reveal themselves.

Although some have remained occupied, the majority of the houses were abandoned, with their walls infested by mold and fungi while their wooden doors rotted away. Some stood lopsided while others were reduced to rubble.

All of the houses were surrounded by pools of mud and water left behind by a recent tidal flood which completely inundated Sanusis Beting village in the northern coast of Java, some 40km northeast of Jakarta.

Sanusi, 50, driving his boat down a river which cuts through his village, Beting, Bekasi regency, West Java. (Photo: Nivell Rayda)

The tidal flood hits Beting twice a month, at full and new moons. During those periods, the sea swells because of the gravitational force of the moon and drowns the entire village in water up to 1m deep.

The water, Sanusi said, sometimes linger for seven days.

“I fear that one day this village will become one with the sea,” the 50-year-old fisherman told CNA.

It has not always been like this, Sanusi said. The village was once a productive fish farming area and home to 600 families.

But for the past 11 years, the sea has encroached more than 6,000ha of fish ponds and residential areas in Beting and climate change, which resulted in rising sea level, stronger winds and bigger waves, has exacerbated the problem. Waves lapping on the shores carry away with them soils along the coast.

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Today, only 100 families remain in Beting village, battling the fortnightly tidal floods which also inundate schools, mosques and the potholed road which serves as the villages only land access to the outside world.

A girl walks past an inundated school, drowned by the frequent tidal floods which hit Beting village, West Java. (Photo: Wisnu Agung Prasetyo)

The erosion has become so severe that tidal floods have reached houses which sit as far away as 4km from where the coastline used to be.

And the habitable area is confined to a strip of land along a small river, sandwiched by eroding fish ponds on either sides.

DOLLAR VILLAGE NO MORE

Sukara, who also has one name, said his family used to employ 10 people to work on their 7ha fish farm, producing tonnes of milkfish and prawns every three months.

The fish farms in Beting village were so productive that farmers there became the main suppliers of fishes sold in North Jakarta, a one-and-a-half hour boat ride away.

Buyers and brokers with their 8 tonne capacity boats would come to Beting at least three times a day to haul in their fishes. The farmers could easily earn US$10,000 every three to four months during harvest seasons.

Sukara, 37, went from a fish farm owner to a struggling fisherman almost overnight when the sea devastated his properties in Beting village, West Java. (Photo: Wisnu Agung Prasetyo)

“The economy here thrived so much that they nicknamed this village the dollar kampung. People flocked here looking to work at fish farms or start their own,” the 37-year-old told CNA.

But that all changed in 2008 when the sea started to creep in and flooded the fish farms.

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“It happened so quickly. Every lunar tide there would be one or two more fish farms which became one with the sea,” Sukara said, adding that the sea finally devastated his own pond in 2010.

Sukara lost hundreds of millions of rupiah in fish harvest and property damage when the erosion hit his fish farm, but more worryingly, the erosion had cost him his livelihood.

“Now, we dont have a steady income. Wed be lucky if we can put food on our table,” he bemoaned.

Satellite images showing the alarming abrasion rate in Beting village, West Java. Images were taken in April 2001 (left), August 2010 (middle) and May 2019 (right). (Images: Google Earth Pro)

Like so many in Beting village, Sukara went from being a wealthy fish farm owner to a poor fisherman who makes 40,000 (US$2.79) to 100,000 rupiah a day catching fishes, clams and squids from the Java Sea.

To make matters worse, the sea is heavily polluted by trash and chemical waste from nearby Jakarta and the neighbouring industrial town of Bekasi.

Another former fish farm owner, Ahmad Payumi said life has become very hard for residents of Beting after the abrasion.

“People have been farming fish in Beting since the 1960s. Farming fish is our only source of income and for many people its the only thing they know how to do,” the 49-year-old told CNA.

A woman walks past an abandoned home in Beting village, West Java. The number of households in the village has been reduced to 100, down from the original 600 since coastal abrasion began in 2008. (Photo: Wisnu Agung Prasetyo)

Payumi said the only options for people of Beting are to become a fisherman or work as a labourer somewhere else. Some people have even decided to be trash pickers at a landfill 70km south of the village.

“We dont have degrees and diplomas. We cant land a more decent job,” he said, adding that he stayed in Beting and become a fisherman because he has no choice.

“I wish I could cut my losses, sell my properties and move elsewhere to start another fish farm, but no one wants to buy a piece of land which is eroding,” he said.

AGGRAVATED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

The erosion which occurred in Beting is not unique.

In Central Javas Demak regency, coastal abrasion has turned 3,200ha of residential and farming areas into a wasteland for the last 20 years, displacing thousands of people and leaving at least three villages under water.

In fact, throughout the northern coast of Java, there are numerous areas with alarming coastal abrasion rates dotting the 1,100 km coastline, although none are as bad as Demak and Beting.

A house in Beting village, West Java surrounded by a pool of mud and water caused by the constant tidal floods hitting the area. When the flood hits, the house is drowned in water up to 1m deep. (Photo: Wisnu Agung Prasetyo)

Scientists said the northern coast of Java is more prone to erosion than other areas in Indonesia.

The land there is low lying and made up of mostly compacted mud formed through millenniums of sediment pile up, scientists told CNA, making it more susceptible to erosion.

The coastline also sits directly in the path of the west monsoon winds, which travels from mainland Asia to Australia between November and March, bringing with it big and strong waves as it enters the shallow Java Sea.

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While coastal abrasion is a natural phenomenon which has been going on for millions of years in Java, today the process is aggravated because of climate change.

“Because of climate change, the weather pattern is changing. Winds which were normally moderate are becoming extreme and in turn, waves are becoming stronger,” Ratna Sari Dewi, a researcher at the governments Geospatial Information Agency told CNA.

Aerial photo of the devastated fish farms in Beting village, West Java. The sea began to breach the fish farms in 2008 and since then at least 6,000ha have been affected. (Photo: Wisnu Agung Prasetyo)

But while erosion is happening throughout Java, Beting and Demak are seeing exceptionally massive erosion rate due to the fact that they are located near two of Indonesias most populated cities: Jakarta and Semarang respectively.

The two cities are battling land subsidence due to the overuse of groundwater and in a bid to save their coastal areas from sinking, the cities have erected dikes, embankments and seawalls.