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View all search resultsFenced off from sea: North Jakartans watch coastline slip away
On the edge of Jakarta’s vanishing public coastline, 80-year-old Asih bends over a pile of washed-up plastic, salvaging what she can to sell. The sea, once her companion and provider, is now nearly out of reach, obscured by towering embankments and the hum of construction.
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Way of life: Children from fishing neighborhoods in Marunda, North Jakarta, play near the Marunda Port on July 13. (JP/Gembong Hanung)
A
s concrete rises and waters surge, coastal communities in North Jakarta find themselves increasingly cut off from the ocean that once sustained their lives and livelihoods.
On the edge of Jakarta’s vanishing public coastline, 80-year-old Asih bends over a pile of washed-up plastic, salvaging what she can to sell. The sea, once her companion and provider, is now nearly out of reach, obscured by towering embankments and the hum of construction.
“We used to walk freely along the shore. Now, all I can see is either ports or embankments,” Asih told The Jakarta Post from Marunda, considered to be North Jakarta’s last remaining free public beach.
This sliver of shoreline has become emblematic to the larger crisis unfolding across Jakarta’s northern coast. Residents are losing not only access to the beach, but their connection to the sea, and with it, a way of life.
Once a place for open gathering, fishing and daily labor, Marunda beach has gradually transformed into a narrow strip squeezed between industrial infrastructure.
The Marunda Port, an extension of the Tanjung Priok international seaport, now dominates the landscape, with recent developments creeping ever closer.
A viral video in May revealed a massive offshore structure taking shape near Marunda Beach, sparking swift backlash from local fishermen, who said the development has forced them to sail farther out to sea, thereby driving up their operating costs and shrinking their daily catch.
