SALBIAH Atir spends her days bent over the muddy flats off the coast of Kg Daeng Machining in Batu Pahat, Johor, looking for edible sea snails.

She can earn around RM20 per kg of snails, which is about as much her old body will let her collect.

When met at the mangrove swamp, her knees were wrapped in bandages from a motorcycle accident the day before, but said she has no choice but to look for snails or she would have nothing to eat.

“I have to work because I received an order from a customer. RM20 per kilo. It’s enough for me to buy some food.”

Where Salbiah picks sea snails now is where thriving villages with oil palm and coconut plantations used to be along the western coast of Johor near Batu Pahat.

Zakir Othman of Kg Sungai Bagan Laut said the swampy area was originally part of village land where people could cultivate the crops.

Rotting frames of wooden houses and tree stumps are signs that the area was once populated.

But the land is no longer suitable for any agricultural activity because of a damaged seawall 10 years ago. Saltwater now flows inland during high tide, making the area unfit for planting.

“It has been 10 years. The land became part of the sea and the villagers had no option but to leave the area.

“All the crops died from the water, only the mangrove trees have survived,” said Zakir, 46.

The affected area measures some 160ha, said Kg Sungai Kluang Tengah village head Ahmad Saat.

“These lands are all under grant. The owners are still paying the land tax but cannot work the land for profit,” he said.

The area, now taken over by mangroves, has become a natural habitat for monkeys and snakes.

After 10 years of waiting, the state government finally acknowledged the problem when Johor Menteri Besar Dr Sharuddin Jamal allocated RM45 million in the state budget last month to improve the seawall along the Batu Pahat and Pontian districts.

Residents, however, said a coastal seawall alone mightn’t be enough and hope the government will include tetrapods, or wave breakers, further out at sea to break the force of incoming waves.

The coastal wall alone is not strong enough to withstand the force of big waves, they said.

“Wave-breakers further out will help to stop big waves so that our shoreline won’t suffer erosion,” Ahmad said.

Parts of the already damaged wall collapse during each monsoon season, he added.

Families have left the villages to look for alternative sources of income as the land is no longer productive, Ahmad said.

Kg Sungai Dulang village chief Mohd Zaini Palidin, 48, owns 1.6ha in the Sg Tongkang are but has abandoned it because of the salinity. His land is now overrun by mangrove trees. And by law, he is not allowed to cut them as mangroves are gazetted as a protected species.

“We used to be able to make a living from the land but I have to look for other work now.

“Mangrove trees can’t make money as they are protected. Yet, I am still paying land tax for the land. I doubt I can ever get my land back to a useable state.”

The landscape has changed and the people here are none the better for it, either having lost their crops, homes and land to the sea, or picking sea snails for RM20 per kilo. – December 12, 2019.