Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital from Jakarta to the sparsely populated island of Borneo, which is home to some of the world’s greatest tropical rainforests.
Problems With Jakarta:
- Jakarta is an Asian mega-city with 10 million people, or 30 million including those in its greater metropolitan area. It is prone to earthquakes and flooding, with highly contaminated groundwater and rivers.
- Parts of the Jakarta are sinking by as much as 25cm (10in) a year and almost half now sits below sea level.
- The dire problems of pollution and traffic congestion makes the coastal city extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Why Is Jakarta Sinking?
40 percent of Jakarta’s land is already below the sea level. Most of the city’s mainland spans across an alluvial lowland with an elevation of about 7m from the sea. Due to relentless construction in the city, the water is not able to seep into the ground in many areas, leading to increased runoff, Runoff will erode surface layer and decrease it's height. On the other hand Due to climate change, the water levels in the Java Sea is rising and weather events are becoming more extreme. The city is rapidly sinking due to uncontrolled extraction of groundwater (because Jakarta does not have adequate piped water). Essentially, it is a combination of climate change and heavy congestion of buildings in the city that continues to bury the city, about 25 cm into the ground every year.
Relocation Of Capital:
Indonesia’s new capital, which hasn’t been named yet, will sit on a 1,80,000 hectare area, which is about three times the size of Jakarta.The cost of this capital relocation is expected to be over US $32.7 billion.The relocation aims to ease the pressure on Jakarta by moving its administrative functions about 1,000km to Kalimantan, which is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo (which is also shared with Malaysia and Brunei).The new capital city (which has not yet been named) will be in the middle of the vast archipelago nation and already has relatively complete infrastructure because it is near the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda.
Several President’s before Widodo have made these suggestions in the past. Indonesia's founding father and first president, Sukarno, also once planned to relocate the capital to Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan province.
Why East Kalimantan?
Intense studies over the past three years had resulted in the choice of the location on the eastern side of Borneo island. The East Kalimantan does not have a history of natural disasters. Furthermore, the government of Indonesia already owns vast amounts of land in the area, the terrain is flat and water resources are sufficient.
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