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After mangroves disappear, Sumatran village braces for worsening tidal waves
Mangrove deforestation in Indragiri Hilir, Riau removes coastal villagers’ protection against the threat of large waves. The climate crisis puts them at a higher risk than ever.
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Lost cover: An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2022, shows a destroyed part of the mangrove forest at Kuala Selat village in Indragiri Hilir, Riau. While most parts of the village’s mangroves are cut down by humans, the remaining ones are not strong enough to withstand the waves and are eroded along with the coastal land. (-/Courtesy of Imam Taufik)
L
izawati was still in her first year of junior high school when a tidal wave hit her house at Kuala Selat village in Kateman district, Indragiri Hilir regency, Riau, one night in late 2006.
Lizawati and her family did not have much time other than to evacuate themselves from the house that stood in the coastal area of the village. The house and hundreds of others in Kuala Selat were swept away by the strong waves, forcing 800 villagers to look for new homes further from the sea.
Lizawati’s family eventually found a plot of land located several hundred meters from the seashore. But the trauma lingered, with anxiety haunting her every time high tide came and caused seawater to creep up inside the house.
“I can’t sleep at night,” said Lizawati, now a 30-year-old mother of two. “I’m afraid that the tidal wave will come again.”
But the waves did come, forcing Lizawati and her family to move three times. They had to leave their home in 2011 and again in 2020 after another tidal wave hit the village.
“We’re always afraid that the waves will come again, and threaten our lives,” said Lizawati’s father Abdul Rahman.
Abdul and his family had lived in Kuala Selat since the 1960s because the village was a perfect place for a fisherman like him. Villagers could still catch shrimp and crabs living around the roots of the mangroves that grew on the village’s beach.
