Indonesia to replace sinking Jakarta with new capital city Nusantara

Dennis TFebruary 11, 2022

34 1 minute read

The Indonesian government has announced its plans to move the country’s capital from Jakarta to a soon-to-be built city, Nusantara.

Nusantara means “archipelago” in Javanese. The country’s parliament approved the bill, which was launched in 2019, to relocate the capital away from Jakarta, which is sinking into the ground at an alarming rate. The new planned capital city of Nusantara will be located around 1 300 kilometres away on the island of Borneo.

Critics have said that the new name could prove confusing, and it does not address the numerous environmental concerns plaguing Jakarta such as water and air pollution and the overextraction of ground water which is the cause of the sinking city.

Jakarta, home to over 10 million people, is one of the world’s fastest sinking cities according to researchers who estimate that the city could be entirely submerged by 2050 if excessive groundwater extraction and new construction projects continue unchecked.
Heri Andreas, a researcher from the Bandung Institute of Technology studying land subsidence told BBC News that “the potential for Jakarta to be submerged isn’t a laughing matter.

“If we look at our models, by 2050 about 95% of North Jakarta will be submerged. North Jakarta has already sunk 2.5m in 10 years and is continuing to sink by as much as 25cm a year in some parts, which is more than double the global average for coastal megacities. Jakarta is sinking by an average of 1-15cm a year and almost half the city now sits below sea level.

Air pollution and traffic jams in the city are notorious. Government ministers must be escorted by police convoys to get to meetings on time. In building a new capital in East Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on the island of Borneo, the government hopes it can take some of the pressure off Jakarta.

Source: IOL