The Sinking Cities of Southeast Asia
By: Tayida Phanich
At first glance, the town of Sitio Pariahan —situated in the Bulacan province, Philippines—might seem like an average town. The small village of 40 families have their own houses, a school, and a church. But the catch? Everything is underwater. Instead of cars and roads, families ride through the ocean water on boats to houses and buildings submerged in water. Their salt fields have flooded over, and due to the high sea levels, fishing has become a struggle (CNA Insider). Losing their homes and their livelihoods, many families have moved. Some can’t; to them, this town is all they have.
However, this tragic story is not uncommon. All over Southeast Asia, over 9.6 million people are currently affected by flooding (Torti). Besides yearly monsoons and typhoons, the problem is increasingly getting worse with rising sea levels (averaged at 3.3 mm per year) (NASA) caused by the melting ice caps in response to global warming. Four of the top ten countries most affected by climate change, ranked by the Global Climate Risk Index, are located in this region, including Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Myanmar (Eckstein et al. 9).
The situation is only getting worse; by 2050, it is projected that Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, and Ho Chi Minh City will have significantly sunk, displacing 28.6 million people (Ayanaputra and Lohatepanont).
Although the extreme may seem like a long way away, the impacts are already evident. Southeast Asia is a region comprising thousands of islands and countries where most have low coastline borders. Their economy heavily relies on exposed industries like agriculture, tourism, and fishing. Many cities are undergoing economic development, further fueling the problem. Even with a small increase of sea levels, areas near river deltas, such as the Mekong River, the Red River, and the Salween River, have become more susceptible to floods and saltwater intrusion. This highly impacts local communities that rely on the river as a water source for daily usage and agriculture.
Additionally, climate change has resulted in an increased intensity in weather patterns, including more violent typhoons and monsoons, and heightened drought periods. Not only will this result in a rise in natural disasters like landslides or floods, but it will increase erosion, damage agricultural land, mangroves, forests, and tourist areas, all of which are a huge part of the Southeast Asian economy. With rising temperatures, staple crops like rice and corn will die, depleting export products and food supply within the countries. Furthermore, high temperatures and CO2 levels threaten marine ecosystems including coral reefs, and affect fisheries in various countries (NIC 27-39).
Unfortunately, these impacts have been heightened because of various human actions. One example includes deforestation in places such as Indonesia, where much of the forest has been burnt down for agricultural or industrial uses. A few others include mangrove removal for shrimp farms in Thailand and bad drainage management by many of the countries. However, land subsidence is the major problem. Land subsidence is the sinking of the Earth’s surface due to removal or displacement of subsurface earth materials, particularly due to excessive and uncontrolled groundwater extraction that is done by many Southeast Asian countries (Ayanaputra and Lohatepanont). The circumstances are substantially worsened by the fact that much of the soil consists of clay, which is highly compact and offers the least drainage. Thus, when water is added, it will become compressible and sink (Grover).
What can we do about this? Right now, there is nothing we can do to completely solve the problem – only solutions that mitigate the inevitable. A few highly encouraged solutions include more efficient drainage systems, along with the planting of more trees to prevent erosion, especially mangroves as a protection against floods. However, if we all work together to reduce our personal carbon footprints by being more conscious of our waste and the pollution we produce and being actively engaged with environmental solutions like tree planting, we can all help to moderate a problem that without proper intervention, will affect millions of people.
Works Cited:
Ayanaputra, Phanawat and Lohatepanont, Ken. “Sinking Cities.” Bangkok Post, 2 September 2019, https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1740904/sinking-cities
Earth.org. “Sea Level Rising will Disproportionately Affect Developing Countries.” Earth.org, 12 December 2018, https://earth.org/sea-level-rise-will-disproportionately-affect-developing-countries/
Eckstein, David et al. “GLOBAL CLIMATE RISK INDEX 2020: Who Suffers Most from Extreme Weather Events? Weather-Related Loss Events in 2018 and 1999 to 2018.” Germanwatch, December 2019, p. 9. https://www.germanwatch.org/sites/germanwatch.org/files/20-2-01e%20Global%20Climate%20Risk%20Index%202020_14.pdf
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NIC. “Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands: The Impact of Climate Change to 2030” National Intelligence Council, August 2009, pp. 27-39. https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/climate2030_southeast_asia_pacific_islands.pdf
Prakash, Amit. “The Impact of Climate Change in Southeast Asia” International Monetary Fund, https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2018/09/southeast-asia-climate-change-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-prakash.htm
https://asiatimes.com/2020/01/se-asia-slowly-but-surely-sinking-into-the-sea/
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Torti, Jacqueline. “Floods in Southeast Asia: A Health Priority.” National Center for Biotechnology Information, December 2012, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3529313/#:~:text=most%20%5B6%5D.-,CAUSES%20OF%20THE%20PROBLEM,storms%20%5B5%2C8%5D.
Victor, Pamela. “Flood control in Southeast Asia.” The ASEAN Post, 15 November 2017, https://theaseanpost.com/article/flood-control-southeast-asia
https://www.global-geneva.com/bangkok-is-sinking-but-so-are-other-southeast-asian-megacities/
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