Kendal, Central Java. Seawater continues to advance across large stretches of Java Island’s northern coastline, gradually inundating residential areas and forcing tens of thousands of people to relocate. Across many coastal communities in Central Java, abandoned homes and public facilities have disappeared beneath the water.

Yet in Balok Village, Kendal Regency, one elderly woman remains determined to stay.

Siti Rokhanah, 65, continues to live in her home despite being surrounded by seawater and having no neighbors left in the area. She says she has nowhere else to go.

Reaching Siti’s house is no longer possible via dry land. On Tuesday, local government officials and Kendal Police Chief Hendry Susanto Sianipar had to wade through knee-deep tidal floodwaters to check on her condition. The village roads they crossed were barely recognizable, as the boundaries between roads, drainage canals, and fish ponds had been erased by the encroaching sea.

Along the route, the remains of collapsed buildings stood as stark reminders of a community that once thrived there.

Siti remembers when the village was still dry land and filled with daily activity. Houses stood close together, children played outdoors every afternoon, and life followed a normal rhythm.

“This place used to be crowded. There were several houses around here,” she said. “Now I am the only one left because everyone else has either moved away or passed away.”

The transformation happened gradually. Coastal flooding, once an occasional event, has become a near-daily reality. As sea levels continued to rise and tidal flooding worsened, many residents chose to leave in search of safer places to live.

One by one, homes were abandoned. Some structures collapsed after years of erosion, while others slowly disappeared beneath floodwaters that have risen higher each year.

Siti, however, has few alternatives. Together with her son, Sesdri Atmoko, she remains in the house they built in 2006. Since 2021, tidal flooding has regularly entered the building and inundated its interior.

Financial hardship is the main reason they have not relocated. With limited income, plans to move elsewhere have repeatedly been postponed.

Life in the isolated home is increasingly difficult. Electricity has long been disconnected, leaving Siti to rely on kerosene lamps after dark to illuminate the lone house standing amid a largely deserted landscape.

Access to basic necessities is another challenge. To obtain clean water, she must travel nearly three kilometers to the nearest inhabited settlement, following routes that are partially submerged by tidal floods.

“I’m used to it now,” she said. “The important thing is to be careful when walking because it’s difficult to tell where the road ends and the fish ponds begin.”

Today, the family survives on the earnings of Siti’s son, who works as a daily laborer at nearby fish ponds. The irregular income makes it difficult for them to save enough money to start a new life elsewhere.

“I don’t know how long I can continue living here,” Siti said. “I can’t afford to move, and staying with relatives is not really an option.”

The government has offered relocation programs for residents affected by coastal flooding, although it remains unclear why Siti has not joined them. Her house is now the only one left standing in the village, and it may be only a matter of time before rising waters render it uninhabitable as well.

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