WAHYUDI, a resident of Bendono village in Demak Regency, Central Java, still remembers what his village was like 30 years ago. His house was around a kilometer away from the shoreline. “Between my house and the beach, there were a vast expanse of rice fields and fishponds,” said the 57-year-old man on Friday, January 8. His yards are now covered in seawater.

Life in his village has changed since the coastal flood began swe...