- Title: Rising seas threaten sinking village in Philippines
- Date: 30th November 2019
- Summary: PARIAHAN, BULACAN PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES (RECENT - NOVEMBER 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BOAT APPROACHING HOUSES ON STILTS VARIOUS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT DANICA MARTINEZ BRUSHING HAIR IN FRONT OF MIRROR VARIOUS OF MARTINEZ EATING BREAKFAST WITH SISTER MARTINEZ WEARING SCHOOL TIE SUN RISING WITH HOUSE ON STILTS IN THE FOREGROUND MARTINEZ EMBARKING ON BOAT (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino
- Embargoed: 14th December 2019 02:59
- Keywords: Climate change Philippines sinking town weather
- Location: PARIAHAN, BULACAN PROVINCE AND LAGUNA PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES
- City: PARIAHAN, BULACAN PROVINCE AND LAGUNA PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Topics: Environment,Editors' Choice,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001B7Q7PS7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: 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. 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 unliveable, a problem faced by other countries in Asia, where the poorest communities are hardest hit.
Martinez takes a 30-minute boat ride to school, sometimes with uniforms drenched by big waves. "Maybe when I'm old enough to get a job, I will move my family out of here because it's so hard here," she said.
A deep well is the only source of water, and residents use it to bathe, clean, cook, and sometimes, even to drink.
Solar panels are installed on many rooftops for electricity, mostly to watch television that's shared between neighbours.
Martinez remembers that their village wasn't always like this and 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 now stained with moss.
Much of the destruction happened when Typhoon Nesat hit in 2011, bringing waves that 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 on to bamboo poles. Their school was also destroyed, and left only with walls. More than 50 families left and never returned.
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 due to unchecked extraction of groundwater and sea levels were rising at the same time.
Martinez sees no future in living permanently in what has become like a scene from "Waterworld", the 1995 film starring Kevin Costner, where post-apocalyptic tribes live on boats and rafts.
(Production: Ronn Bautista) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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