Johor coastal villagers’ anxiety level rises with each passing year

BATU PAHAT: When Mohd Izwan Rusli was a child, the Malacca Straits would overflow and flood villages near here once each year.

Today, the 26-year-old orang asli fisherman sees the sea creep up to coastal homes at least twice every month.

“The water comes up to the danger level. Up to here,” Mohd Izwan said, pointing at the wooden floorboards of a river mouth platform, about a metre above the low tide mark on the beach.

“This is normal now. The sea is getting higher,” he said.

Aminah Minal, who catches fish for a living, said some islands near here could no longer be reached by foot during low tide.

“When I was younger, we could swim to Sialu Island easily but now, we have to take a boat,” the 51-year-old said of the island which is just over a kilometre away from the main shoreline.

She added that even without rain, the sea would bring floods up to people’s homes, forcing many to move further inland for safety.

Coming in from his boat, her husband Paiman Zainal, 55, agreed, saying fishermen were finding it difficult to read sea conditions these days.

“It is rising in a very sudden way. Not just that; the winds have also changed with the seasons and floods coming earlier than before.

“We can’t even tell when the winds are going to come,” he said, shaking his head.

Kampung Lapangan Terbang village chief Mohd Mian, 46, said the sea swamped about 20 to 30ha of coconut plantations here a few years back.

A coastal barrier has since been put up there.

“This never happened before. The sea hasn’t reached our village yet but I don’t know what would happen if that stone wall wasn’t there,” he said.

Kampung Segenting fisherman Tan Kee Chye, 35, said people here were not worried about the rising sea level although it was about 15cm higher than it was some 20 years ago.

“Even if it goes up by another 15cm, we’re not scared,” he said, looking at the concrete foundations that supported his village.

He also said that his village was on ground that was higher than the other areas.

“If the water comes up to us, then all of Batu Pahat will be gone,” he said with a laugh.