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Gallery|Climate Crisis

The drowning villages of Indonesia

The water level rises ever higher with each passing year. Every high tide brings the sea into their homes.

Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
The village graveyard is often flooded. Villagers must wait for the water to recede to hold funerals and bury their dead. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
By Syarina Hasibuan
Published On 13 Jul 201713 Jul 2017
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Bekasi, Indonesia – Rising sea levels have forced people to leave their homes in four villages located in Bekasi, on the Indonesian island of West Java. Those who have remained face difficult living conditions.

Pantai Bahagia village, located about one kilometre from the sealine is the most affected by the rising sea. Nearly 80 percent of the population here have felt the effect of the encroaching sea waters. The water level rises ever higher with each passing year. Every high tide brings the sea into their homes. 

Just a few decades ago, thousands of families inhabited these fishing villages. Now, only a few hundred remain, because they have nowhere else to go. Once they made a good living farming prawns and fish, but their livelihood is gone now. Since the sea level started to rise and flood their ponds in 2005, they scramble to find work just to make ends meet.

These villages represent only a small part of the densely populated Bekasi coastal areas, which are struggling with the impact of climate change. Experts have predicted that before 2050, around 42 million homes around coastal areas will be at risk of flooding, and as many as 1500 small islands in Indonesia could disappear due to the rising sea levels.

Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
Pantai Bahagia Village was once a prosperous village. Well-built houses with big yards are scattered around the village, which is now constantly flooded. Before, people made a living by prawn and fish farming. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
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People are forced to leave their houses because the sea water rises every year. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
Wawan, his wife and three children have lived in the village all their lives. The family doesn't want to move away and abandon their home. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
Wawan has raised the floor of his house several times to keep water from getting in. It is now 1.5m higher that the original level, yet last year, sea water again entered the house. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
People in the village can no longer farm prawns because their ponds are often flooded. Now they go out looking for crabs, making much less money than before. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
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NGOs, in collaboration with the government, plant mangrove trees with hopes that this can reduce the flooding, but villagers say so far they haven't felt the change. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
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Years ago, people flocked to this mosque in Bahagia Village, but now, with the flooding, fewer and fewer people come. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
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Some people still live in the village, but many of their neighbours have already left. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
The price of the land in the village dropped to only 40 cents per square metre but villagers have been forced to just abandon their homes without selling them. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
During the high tide people have to wade in waist-deep water to reach their homes. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
At the public elementary school, the yard is constantly flooded, but the school is still in use. During high tide, water enters the classrooms and children have had to adjust their school hours to avoid the flood time. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]
Drowning villages of Jakarta/ Please Do Not Use
Salam, 65, has been living in the village for 30 years. Now, his home is always flooded, but he and his wife have nowhere else to go. [Syarina Hasibuan/Al Jazeera]


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