Facing the sinking cities in the midst of climate change

Jakarta, Hanoi, Kobe, and Houston are 4 out of the ten fastest-sinking cities in the world[1]. The problem is aggravated by climate change, which causes coastal cities to face massive flooding as sea levels rise. Certain districts of Jakarta, especially near Jakarta Bay, have sunk more than 4 meters since the 1970s, directly resulting from excessive and uncontrolled groundwater use[2]. Besides excessive groundwater extraction, rapid urbanization and population growth are major causes of severe land subsidence[3]. In urban areas, residential areas such as multi-story apartments, landed houses in real estate, and informal settlements are primary drivers for land subsidence due to the massive groundwater use. In some countries, government regulation in groundwater use is fully enforced, and the water piping systems are in place, so groundwater use is under control. But for informal settlements and slums, the condition is different. Over 1 billion people live in slums and informal settlements across the Global South without formal access to potable water, sewage, or electricity[4]. Therefore, it is urgent to support the people in that settlement so they can reduce groundwater use significantly.

Several housing programs have already been launched, such as repair, seismic retrofitting, and other home improvement programs. Due to this urgency, the program should be redesigned to incorporate access to potable water and reduce electricity use. The difference with the current home improvement program is that the new support should cover all inhabitants within the area. For instance, the seismic retrofitting and house improvement program is carried out only for the selected household that falls into the program category, such as those who fall into vulnerable criteria and live in a house that is vulnerable to hazards.

Challenges in the current program are on the demand side. For instance, even seismic retrofitting is crucial to have earthquake-resistant houses; only a few people are willing to retrofit them. They do not prioritize the initiative primarily because of the cost, and earthquake events do not happen regularly. People will raise their house level, even if expensive, since they realize that floods or rising water levels always occur. If it happens, it is already too late.

Hence, facing the sinking problem, adapting to climate change, and having resilient houses should be supported by various agencies since they will be integrated across sectors and carried out simultaneously. Housing actors can provide technical assistance in having robust houses that abide by the building code. Moreover, the provision of design that might reduce energy consumption and use low-power electronics should be introduced. Municipalities and water agencies provide water systems to cover the needs of all households in the area. Once all are in place, policy on the prevention of groundwater use should be enforced. Educating the community on how to use water wisely should be done continuously. However, the most important is improving their livelihood; all tend to fail if they live in poverty. Informal settlements in coastal towns should be prioritized to have this assistance very soon.

Arwin Soelaksono 

Photo: Artistpix/Shutterstock

---

[1] Squires. C, These are the 10 fastest sinking cities in the world. World Economic Forum. 2022. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/coastal-cities-flooding-sinking-climate-change/

[2] Walton, B. Indonesia: As seas rise, unchecked groundwater use sinks coastal cities. PreventionWeb. 2019. https://www.preventionweb.net/news/indonesia-seas-rise-unchecked-groundwater-use-sinks-coastal-cities  

[3] Erkens, G. et al. Sinking coastal cities. 2015. doi:10.5194/piahs-372-189-2015

[4] GSG. Informal Settlements: No Longer Invisible. The role of impact in scaling capital mobilization to fund slum-upgrading programs globally. 2022

Coordinated action for creating climate resilient housing

Achieving affordability of climate-resilient housing should be a top priority for governments and all stakeholders related to housing and settlements. This should not be the responsibility of the housing sector alone since tackling these issues involves complex socio-economic factors. For instance, approximately one billion people currently live in informal settlements, primarily in urban areas in low and middle-income countries (Satterthwaite, 2020). It can be predicted a large portion of those are of sub-standard quality houses, i.e., built not abiding by the building code. They have poor utilities, such as an inadequate sewer system that will overflow during hard rain. There is a poor clean water piping system and, hence, massive groundwater use. Houses are in dense settlements, many of which are attached.

Those people live in vulnerable areas that are prone to various hazards. Fire and floods might repeatedly be experienced due to their living conditions. To add more severe, an earthquake might cause numerous houses to collapse and loss of life due to their vulnerable structure. Loss of livelihood is unavoidable since many houses are used as a workplace. The risk might be aggravated due to climate change.

The root of all those problems is poverty, in which people have little option about where and what kind of house they live. The more people stay in that community, the more people might feel okay with vulnerable houses and living conditions. Therefore, awareness campaigns for safer housing through seismic retrofitting programs or healthier living environments will have little effect. The demand might be low if a cost factor is incurred. Moreover, it should not be a single-house intervention but addressed from a community or settlement approach. Hence, the ecosystem that enables housing improvement should be created.

Affordable building materials for retrofitting should be available to replace poor building materials in local hardware stores. In many cases, hardware stores sell low-quality and unacceptable construction materials to sell it at lower prices. Provision of construction and retrofitting training to add more builders and enable house owners to work on their houses. Also, improvement of all utilities, such as clean water and sewer. All of these should have an impact on their income. To some extent, they should be able to work on house maintenance or upgrading. This enormous task needs substantial funding and coordinated action.

Coordinated action is needed because various stakeholders will work simultaneously on poverty reduction, disaster risk reduction, service upgrades, climate change, and adaptation. Unfortunately, those initiatives were implemented during the decade but not as integrated interventions. This integration will serve many interests at once and harmonize government policies. Moreover, it might strengthen collaboration amongst stakeholders, including house owners, to create resilient housing. 

Arwin Soelaksono