A child perches on the edge of her bed. Waves lap at the floor beneath her dangling feet. Here in Depok, a village on the Indonesian island of Java, the ocean has flowed inside the house.

Such a sight is not uncommon in the rural communities along Java’s northern coastline, where up to four metres of land each year are swallowed by the sea. Rice paddies, fish ponds and coconut trees have all vanished beneath the waves. Meanwhile the land that remains has become increasingly uninhabitable. Locals scramble to stay above the water. Some villagers have raised the floors of their homes with soil and cement, creating “dwarf houses” that people must stoop or crawl to enter. Those who can’t afford to elevate their floors store their possessions on high shelves, or build makeshift tidal barriers across their front doors. When the barriers overflow, residents bail out water with buckets.  

Sea levels are rising by around 5mm a year along Indonesia’s coastline, a rate far higher than the global average of 3.5mm. At the same time, some areas along Java’s coast are sinking by 1.15 metres a year. The island’s subsidence is partly the legacy of centuries of exploitation. In the 19th century, Dutch colonists built dams and embankments in Javan cities—projects that reduced flooding in the short term but interrupted the natural sedimentation process along the coasts. In 2023 the Indonesian government gave permission for sea sand to be extracted on a large scale for export, a controversial practice that scientists have warned will lead to further coastal erosion. Excessive use of groundwater has also accelerated the rate of subsidence, with well-digging and water-pumping causing soil to sink under its own weight.