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Robbing Demak to pay Semarang: Flood controls make erosion worse
Construction projects on the northern coast of Semarang has come at a cost that unfortunately is borne by the city’s closest neighbor, Demak regency.
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Houses are permanently inundated by seawater in Sriwulan village, Demak regency, Central Java. The water is creeping up to residents' houses due to rampant coastal erosion and land subsidence in the area. (JP/Donny Fernando)
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ater used to be the first sight to greet train passengers arriving into Tawang Station in Semarang, Central Java, between the mid-1990s and late-2000s, when the station and other buildings in the northern part of the provincial capital used to be inundated almost daily by tidal floods, known locally as the rob.
As a coastal city, Semarang’s most pressing concerns are usually about seawater. In recent years, the impact of floods has worsened as a result of rising sea levels, coastal erosion and land subsidence.
Both the central government and regional administration have made efforts to tackle the problem. The city administration has joined hands with several companies to build polders - a flood-control system using dikes - in the Banger River to stop recurring tidal floods inundating Semarang’s northern coast. Apart from the polders, the authorities are also building a sea wall and other concrete-based structures to prevent the rob from flooding the city.
In the meantime, the government has also been constructing other facilities on the city’s northern coast to support the region’s economy, including reclaiming land for the Terboyo industrial complex and Tanjung Mas Port.
All this construction on the northern coast of Semarang, however, has come at a cost that unfortunately is borne by the city’s closest neighbor, Demak regency.
Read also: The sinking villages: Seawater creeps into houses in Central Java
“When Semarang is done with its tidal floods, it will later impact us in Demak. Coastal erosion occurring in our area might be influenced by projects there,” Saiful Muhammad Arif, 32, a resident of Bedono village in Demak told The Jakarta Post recently.
