TIMBULSLOKO, INDONESIA: Sulkan, an Indonesian teacher, flips through photos at his small mosque surrounded by sea as he recalls a marching band and happy kindergarten graduates standing on a road, now covered with murky, green water.
Numerous landmarks in the Javan coastal community of Timbulsloko have been swallowed by rising tides, forcing locals to shift to a new way of life on the water.
Over 200 people have stayed in one of Indonesia’s rapidly sinking regions, transforming from a scene of lush rice paddies into a network of canoes and boardwalks – a worrisome indication of how climate change will upend coastal towns everywhere.
The 49-year-old Sulkan, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, said, “It’s only memories now. There are no longer such activities.” Why? Since the tide has already swamped the area.”
The lifestyles of Timbulsloko inhabitants have been significantly changed by land sinking, excessive groundwater exploitation, and rising sea levels.
After mangroves were chopped in the 1990s to make way for fishing ponds, the coastline has become more flood-prone.
Denny Nugroho Sugianto, a professor at Diponegoro University, claims that water has subsequently flooded the area around Timbulsloko and the neighboring Demak district, reaching a depth of five kilometers (three miles).
He referred to it as a “slow disaster” unfolding in everyone’s eyes. According to data, specific locations around Timbulsloko were sinking up to 20 centimeters per year, twice as fast as in 2010. He said, “This is the largest rate of land subsidence” ever observed in the region. —AFP/APP
