Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Reuters

Environment

Eloisa Lopez

Rising seas threaten early end for sinking village in Philippines

Bamboo huts are risen on stilts in the submerged coastal island Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, on November 25, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

SITIO PARIAHAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Danica Martinez, 16, grew up in a house that grows taller every few years.

Her father raises the stilts of their bamboo hut so water from the sea doesn't reach the floor. They live in Sitio Pariahan, a coastal village in the Philippines that was once an island, and is now without land.

Danica Martinez, 16, walks back to her bamboo hut carrying a gallon of water which she pumps daily from a well, the village's only source of fresh water, in the submerged coastal village Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Sitio Pariahan, about 17 km (10.5 miles) north of Manila, is sinking about 4 cm (1.5 inches) every year, owing largely to land subsidence from the population's overuse of groundwater, according to experts.

Now rising sea levels caused by global warming could soon make this village unlivable, a problem faced by other countries in Asia, where the poorest communities are hardest hit.

A deep well is the only source of water, and residents use it to bathe, clean, cook and, sometimes, even to drink.

Siblings Cindy, 14, and DJ Martinez, 12, wake up in their bamboo hut which is risen on stilts in the submerged coastal village Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Solar panels are installed on many rooftops for electricity, mostly to watch television that's shared between neighbors. On days that power is low, residents pass the time by gambling.

Martinez remembers that their village wasn't always like this. She recalls basketball tournaments and grand feasts that their community once held, so popular that visitors from nearby towns would flock to watch performances, and celebrate mass at the church.

The court is now fully submerged, and the church that was once filled with devotees is stained with moss.

Mary Jane, 35, helps her daughter Cindy Martinez, 14, get ready for school in the submerged coastal village Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Much of the destruction happened when Typhoon Nesat struck in 2011, bringing waves Martinez said were as big as houses.

She saw how the huts were pulled into the sea, one by one, as she and her siblings held onto bamboo poles. Their school was also destroyed, and left only with walls. More than 50 families left and never returned.

Now, Martinez and her siblings take a 30-minute boat ride to school, sometimes with uniforms drenched by big waves.

Danica Martinez, 16, drinks a cup of milk as she prepares to go to school in the submerged coastal village Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

WATERWORLD

"It seems scary to look at, but you get used to living like this," she said. "It's difficult, but also fun."

Danica Martinez, 16, brushes her teeth with water that she pumped from a well, the village's only source of fresh water, in the submerged coastal village Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 27, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Her parents rely on their boat to make a living.

"Without a boat, you are paralyzed," said her mother Mary Jane Martinez, who sells crabs her husband catches to the town's market. She said life in the village was getting harder day by day, but she still preferred it to the city.

"If you work hard here, you will survive. You only have to jump on the sea to catch food. In land, you can work hard and still not have enough," she said.

Siblings Cindy (L), 14, and Danica Martinez, 16, prepare to board a boat to travel to school with their father Domingo (front right), 40, in the submerged coastal village Sitio Pariahan, Bulakan, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 25, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

Her husband, Domingo, said leaving was not an option, because there is nowhere to go. They once tried to rent an apartment in a nearby town, but moved back shortly after.

"Our livelihood is here," he said. "If we are asked to move inland, it would be difficult to make a living. What if we become beggars there?"

Fernando Siringan, a climate change expert, has studied Sitio Pariahan closely and said some delta areas north of Manila were changing rapidly because land was subsiding and water levels rising at the same time.

Danica Martinez, 16, sits in class at a Montessori school in Obando, Bulacan, north of Manila, Philippines, November 25, 2019. Danica and her sister Cindy were both granted scholarships to study there after the school's principal learned about their way of life in Sitio Pariahan. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez

"What is being projected 50 years from now or 100 years from now for many parts of the globe is actually happening right now at even faster rates," he said.

A U.N. climate change summit will be held in Madrid from Dec. 2-13, and with wildfire in the United States and Australia, and severe flooding in Europe all being linked to global warming, public pressure is rising on cost-conscious national governments to find urgent solutions.

Danica sees no long-term future in what has become like a scene from "Waterworld", a 1995 film starring Kevin Costner in which post-apocalyptic tribes live on boats and rafts.