"Dwarf Houses at Northern Coast of Java"

"There were so many marine ponds in this settlement. The tidal flood supposed to be flowed to marine ponds. A dozen years ago local citizen sold their marine ponds for factory construction. From that time, the tidal flood came to this settlement," as Sri said while remembering the past.

By: A. Ryan Sanjaya

IT WAS TAMBAKLOROK, a fisher settlement at north coast of Semarang City, Indonesia. The fishy smell wind always welcome to the visitor who travel to that settlement. Dusty in sunny day, and muddy in rainy season.

There are hundreds of holes on the street. Motorbike drivers should choose the proper side to avoid that inundation that establish all day long.

While driving on small alleys, the visitor would see an attracting sighting: the dwarf houses.

Those "low-roof" houses were built coincide with the "too-high-roof" houses. At some area of that settlement, the visitor also would see some drowning houses. The roof top is as high as adult people's eyes.

From alley to alley, the visitor also would see the children who play with anything they have. Just like other children, there were always happiness in their eyes, and sometimes they laughed so hard. Perhaps, they did not know that they play on the land that their parents always worry about.

That anxiety be perceived by Ani Faridah, a meal and drink seller. She sells those meal and drink at front of her house. Compared to the other house, Ani Faridah's house is so much higher.

"I have been raise this house for years. I make it high so that I do not have to raise this house every five or ten years," she said.

Although the house was quite high, her house-yard was still lower than the height level of road in front of the house. The government always raised the road height level so that it would not be inundated by tidal flood. The consequence was the house would always inundated by tidal flood because of the lower position. That was why raising the house height level is a inevitability activity.

The tidal flood---the specter at once the most loyal friend of Tambaklorok citizen---was not always came direct from the sea. Sometimes this water also percolated from the ground to the house yard and suddenly penetrated into the house.

Even, at some houses the tidal flood penetrated through the sidelines of the ceramics floor inside their houses.

A salted fish seller, Jumilah, frequently faced terrible problem because of tidal flood which suddenly destroy a room in her house. Unfortunately, she used that room to keep dozens kilograms of salted fishes.

"I have to move that fishes to living room, and then sunning them again when it is sunny. If the weather is good, the result is good. But nowadays is rainy season so I have to decreace the production in order to avoid bigger losses," she said.

Suniyah did not sunning those fishes on the road like other people did, however she did it on her roof. That was quite easy to do because the roof height is just as high as adult people. The visitor have to move their head down to come in to her house in order to avoid the bump.

Uninvited Visitor

Ani Faridah's and Jumilah's houses were distance from this northern coast of Java. Although had distance, tidal flood was still visit regularly to their houses. So, how about the houses that precisely built on the side of sea?

Suniyah, a kerupuk seller, had another story.

When I visited there, Suniyah and her husband was repairing her house. All of the ground inside her house was covered up with dark brown soil. She also repaired all of the doors and windows. She asked me to sit on a chair that set on side porch of the house.

"Why do you repair your house?" I asked for breaking ice.

"We got tidal flood last night. I woke up at the midnight and saw the flood as high as this," she said while show her calf, "but I continued to sleeping."

Suniyah acted normally, as if get used to this condition. As always, tidal flood came at midnight and get down at the morning.

From my seat, I could see seafront at no more than 15 meters beside her house. Around 5 meters beside the house, there were some chicken coop that had high structure. Meanwhile, precisely at the seafront there built a too simple toilet for defecating. The feces straightly down to the water, and perhaps, had been part of tidal food which came regularly to the settlement.

"Project" Mentality

 This story of Tambaklorok no doubt attracted so much attention from many groups. There were so many life problematic there, such as environment, economy, and social problem.

They also had been done so many charity and program to help citizen of Tambaklorok. The university came to solve the problem they have found. The Government came to provide facilities for citizen by using state budget. Meanwhile, so much more non-government organizations (NGOs) went there brought some program that funded by national and international donors. And fortunately, there were still so much other group who want to come to Tambaklorok and help them.

But, the question is, have they done the good enough for Tambaklorok citizen? Do they make a big difference for them?

The answer could be so wide. Eddy, activist cum lecturer, had an opinion. He and his group have been doing accompaniment the citizen of Tambaklorok for almost ten years.

"Changing the citizen is always not easy. Their habit that built for dozens of years are never easy to be changed. Sometimes the desire for changing have to come from the inside," he said.

That was why he and his team never stopped to do accompaniment for many years. And then, how about help from others?

"They are frequently fail. Most of them has 'project' mentality. One action, and go. Leave," he said.

Nature or Capitalism?

Beside the funding and many programs, groups of researcher were always came to Tambaklorok. They have found so many root of problems, especially the answer of question: why there was always land subsidence in Tambaklorok?

The answer that agreed in general from this question was because the absence of ground water. The ground water made the land still in this position. When they have gone, the land above the water would decline day by day.

But, Sri had another response. She said that the land subsidence in Tambaklorok occured since there were construction project of factory beside the Tambaklorok settlement.

"In addition of the factory building weight, that factory was built in ex-marine ponds," she said.

Sri could be wrong. She was not a researcher. She was a student activist, and now be one of big political party cadres in Indonesia. But she had been living in Tambaklorok from her birth, almost 40 years.

Related with the construction project, Ani Faridah had another story. She said that there were project construction activity from the government. That project impacted the big shaking that implied to all houses from Tambaklorok settlement. The Government then fixed that problem by put vibration dampers in some points.

"It could be one of factor of land subsidence here," she said.

Fortunately, the government was not stay there and did nothing. Sri said that they made a high tax regulation that addressed to that factory. The impact was the factory stopped all their activity at that area, the owner moved the factory to the east, Demak. They had still to pay the tax in Demak, but not as high as in Semarang.

"But the land is already down day by day, and the tidal flood already come regularly," she said. (*)