Indonesia Has Picked A New Capital As Almost Half Of Jakarta Is Now Below The Sea Level

Indonesia's president Joko Widodo has announced that the country's capital will move from "overcrowded, sinking and polluted" Jakarta to a site in sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on Borneo island, which is known for rainforests and orangutans.

He informed the people of his country that intense studies over the past three years had resulted in the choice of the location on the eastern side of Borneo island.

In this picture taken on July 12, 2019 a man walks on a muddy road between abandoned warehouses and a giant sea wall in northern Jakarta. AFP Photo

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, Widodo said.

So why is Indonesia shifting its capital? What is wrong with Jakarta in the first place?

A general view of buildings as smog covers the capital city of Jakarta. Reuters Photo

The answers run deeper than the attention humans pay to the environment.

Widodo said that the burden has become too heavy on Jakarta as the center of government, finance, business, trade and services as well as the location of the country's largest airport and seaport.

"We couldn't continue to allow the burden on Jakarta and Java island to increase in terms of population density,'' Widodo said at a news conference in the presidential palace. "Economic disparities between Java and elsewhere would also increase.''

The most compelling reason behind this shift is the fact that Jakarta is the fastest sinking city in the world and, according to several researches, many parts of the city will totally be submerged by 2050.

In this picture taken on July 5, 2019, a man walks next to an abandoned submerged Mosque in northern Jakarta. AFP Photo

While the rising sea level due to global warming has a role to play in this, a lot also has to do with the fact that the city sits on a swampy land and 13 rivers run through it. The problems are not limited to flash floods almost on a yearly basis but large parts of the city is disappearing under the ground.

In this picture taken on July 12, 2019 houses and apartments are under the sea level as seen in northern Jakarta. AFP Photo

According to the BBC, North Jakarta has 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 overall is sinking by an average of 1-15cm a year and almost half the city now sits below sea level.

The city is rapidly sinking due to uncontrolled extraction of ground water, which in turn is a result of its high density population in the region.

How will the new capital be different?

This aerial picture taken on July 31, 2019 by news outlet Tribun Kaltim shows a view of the area around Samboja, Kutai Kartanegara. AFP Photo

Mineral-rich East Kalimantan was once almost completely covered by rainforests, but illegal logging has removed many of its original growth. It is home to only 3.5 million people and is surrounded by Kutai National Park, known for orangutans and other primates and mammals.

Mr Widodo said the relocation of the capital to a 180,000-hectare (444,780-acre) site will take up a decade and cost as much as 466 trillion rupiah ($32.5 billion), of which 19 per cent will come from the state budget and the rest will be funded by cooperation between the government and business entities and by direct investment by state-run companies and the private sector.

He said the studies determined that the best site is between two districts, North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kertanegara, an area that has minimal risk of disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, volcanic eruptions or landslides in the seismically active nation.

Decades of discussions about building a new capital on Borneo island had moved forward in April this year when Mr Widodo approved a general relocation plan.

(With inputs from Associated Press)