Seawater seeps into the home of Annie Casquejo every time there’s a high tide. It enters through cracks in the floor created nearly a decade ago when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the province of Bohol, and her island of Batasan. The quake also caused the land to subside, with Batasan sinking by around one meter.
“The water can make our table float,” says Casquejo with frustration in her voice. In the months after the quake, she and her family would sleep on a mattress on the living room floor. That’s no longer possible. Rising tides attributed to climate change mean the flooding is getting worse at an alarming rate.