Residents struggle to stay in sinking village in Demak

By Bambang M and Heru Prasetya

SEMARANG (JP): A graveyard sits in the middle of the sea. Dozens of other gravestones are visible on the surface. A little to the north, the top of a tombstone stands erect beside two dead and withered trees.

The graveyard is for the villagers of Tambaksari hamlet, Sayung subdistrict, Demak regency, Central Java. One grave is that of Abdullah Muzakir, a kyai (Muslim cleric) acknowledged as the propagator of Islam in Bedono village and its surrounding areas in the northern coastal area.

Although Tambaksari villagers live in the coastal area of the North Java Sea, it was certainly not their wish to build a graveyard in the middle of the sea. The graveyard used to be located among residents' houses and pools. However, as part of the hamlet is now flooded with water two meters high, the graveyard looks as if it were in the middle of the sea.

"Tambaksari hamlet began sinking in 1995," said Rohani, the chairperson of the Babon River Waste Victims Association (MKL). The river flows through Bedono and Sriwulan villages, both in Sayung subdistrict.

Besides dealing with waste pollution, which is harming residents in the villages, Rohani is also an advocator conducting a investigation into what is causing Tambaksari and other villages to sink.

The sinking of the village is not the result of a natural phenomenon. It is a man-made environmental disaster which is having an adverse impact on locals.

Quoting the results of a 1992 report conducted by the Semarang office of the Agency of Meteorology and Geophysics (BMG), Rohani said seawater rose from 5 centimeters to 10 cm because of a hole in the ozone layer. The hole brought about the greenhouse effect with global warming causing the ice in the north and south poles to melt so that the level of seawater rose.

Doubts about this assumption, however, have since risen. Along with Babon River MKL members, Rohani visited the coastal areas in Moredemak (Demak) and Jepara in 1998, and found that the sea water level in these two areas had not risen.

"If the hole in the ozone layer was a result of the rise in seawater, Moredemak and Jepara should also have been affected. But in these two places, the sea water level has not risen," Rohani said.

Another possible cause was the construction of Tanjung Mas harbor in 1987. The harbor has now gone further into the sea. During its construction, the bottom of the sea was also dredged to allow larger vessels to dock.

"The harbor construction has brought about a change in the pattern of the tides so that the waves have shifted toward Tambaksari hamlet and its surroundings," said Prof. Dr. Sudharto P. Hadi, the deputy minister of environmental affairs. He was formerly the head of Diponegoro University's center for environmental studies in Semarang.

The second cause is diminishing land surface as a result of large-scale pumping of ground water. Rohani said Sayung subdistrict was home to some 46 companies and that every day pumped out about 1,250 cubic meters of water.

"The government should give an incentive to reduce the pumping of ground water," said Sudharto.

Besides Tambaksari, six other hamlets in Sriwulan and Bedono villages are prone to tidal flooding because of the lower ground level.

Remain

Now that over half of Tambaksari hamlet is submerged, there are only six families, consisting of 25 people, remaining there. As many as 60 other families were relocated in 1998 to a state- owned plot of land some 10 km away.

"To relocate our families, we got Rp 50 million in assistance from the regional administration," said one Tambaksari resident from his new home.

Originally, these villagers would be staying only temporarily until conditions improved. However, as the flooding of seawater has not subsided, many villagers have decided to settle in their new place, where each family has a plot of land measuring 18 meters by 10 meters. They had bought the land on credit for Rp 3.5 million.

To avoid all of Tambaksari becoming submerged, a concrete embankment measuring 2.5 m high was built at the edge of the hamlet.

"Students from universities in Yogyakarta helped built this embankment," said Rohani. Unfortunately, some parts of the embankment have burst because of the waves continuously pounding it.

Several villagers' homes are still standing. There is also a school and a mosque.

"It's a pity we have to leave Tambaksari as it had a very good mosque," said Masrufah, a Sriwulan villager.

The houses are in desperate need of repair. Holes have formed in the lower part of the outer wall because of rob (tidal flooding) which happens every night. Abandoned houses are in a far more serious state of disrepair.

Despite the embankment, Tambaksari is not yet free of the floods. Ulil Abshar, a Tambaksari resident living in the hamlet, said that in August, September and October, the floods always came at about 2 a.m. and subsided just before daybreak. In other months, they usually came between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

As a result, the ground of Tambaksari hamlet is usually wet and muddy. In some sloping areas, water collects and forms a pond. "If the flood comes, the village will be about 30 cm underwater," said Ulil Abshar.

On alert

Despite the impending threat that the hamlet will be entirely submerged and the fact that the village is flooded every day, the residents who remain there said they would not leave yet. They fish to survive and are always on alert for flooding to arrive at any time.

In mid-November, for instance, Ulil and his six neighbors were repairing small floodgates located between the estuary of the river and the sea. "We still want to stay here," said Ulil.

As they cannot breed fish in the ponds -- the fish are swept out to sea by the tide -- Ulil and other residents staying in the hamlet catch fish or shrimp. "On average, we earn about Rp 15,000 a day," he said.

The data compiled by Demak regional administration disclosed that some 2,000 hectares of the area was affected by tidal floods. The large expanse of land used to support residences, ponds full of fish and shrimp and rice fields.

"The regional administration has yet to optimize its attention on the area. To be honest, we do not know what we can do about the floods," said Didik Hendradi, the head of the physical and infrastructure facilities of Demak agency for regional development planning.