Today’s morning I walked down to the beach to see the impact of the tidal floods happened yesterday afternoon, 28 May 2021. It affected several
beachfront houses, and roads. The beachfront area of Pantai Kelapa, and Bebonuk
were the most affected. The tides tore off some of the squatter housing located
on the beach, and the tides even crossed the road and flooded some of the
houses on the other side. It did not cause deaths but it did disrupt the traffic,
and damage some squatter housing making the people to evacuate for a few hours.
The event was warned already by the Meteorological Agency of the Government.
The agency predicted that there were possible high tides, and wind storms due
to ….bla..bla (dunno scientific terminologies). People were asked to be
vigilant, particularly at the beachfront.
This is another strike on Dili city, which I call it Sea
strike. The beachfront areas in Dili are prone to tidal floods. People are living in the beach which makes
them the first layer to be hit by the high tides. The impact won’t come next
year but is happening now and will just intensify as there are no mitigation
measures taken to relocate the current squatters, and prohibit future
development at the beachfront. Just for you to imagine that somewhere up to the
area of Caicoli will below the sea level just in 50 years. Please imagine! For me,
if there are no adaptation measures taken to prevent sea water to flow as far
as Caicoli, for sure, the prediction will surely be proven correct; and it means our
children won’t see Palacio do Guverno anymore.
Before these tidal floods, there was a
huge Air strike on the Dili city occurred two months ago. The government
declared a state of calamity due to the heavy rains occurred across the country
from 29 March to 4 April which resulted in flash floods. The floods
affected a sizable area of Dili. It inundated approximately around 90% from the total across the country-
or 25,881 households in Dili municipality, and 41 Fatalities in total. The impacts of Air strike will
intensify due to the climate change, poor land use plan, and disorganized physical development.
Also I have got a few friends who fly drones. They showed me pictures of how Dili got Land strike very hard after heavy rains. People living in the upstream of the city, and notoriously on the hills, they have also been hit very hard. Landsides on the hills and river bank erosion caused houses literally yanked out from the ground. There is no hope to recover from this kind of damage because rebuilding means soil ground stabilization first which I think impossible for individuals to afford. If they keep living in the same area then, I will let you to imagine.
As the city grows and being burdened by mass production of load
and the weakening ground prop, underground strike is also possible. Dili city’s
underground water is being sucked out as the population grows. Now, population
of Dili is around 300k; underground water is exploited uncontrollably, and this
is not good for the stabilization of the ground for the future. I remember, the
city of Jakarta, some experts predict the land subsidence is happening often,
and the city will collapse.
Lately, Dili city is being hit by disaster from rains, storm
water floods, landslides, tidal floods, and possible land subsidence. Well, like
a war, you have to understand the nature of your enemies, also like where they
will strike from. Now it is important to study those disasters that have occurred,
and try to do something carefully, and systematically to solve. The country has
been independent for about more than 20 years, but most things done are
responsive not preventive. I take the analogy
of war because it might be easily understandable because I have seen recently
that most Timorese are interested to talk more about Israel and Palestinian war
instead of their own problems.
** I hope this gives
you an inspiration.
