Sinking Jakarta, Rising Nusantara: Indonesia's New Capital City

From disappearing beaches in Florida to sinking islands in the Maldives, sea level rise is a climate change impact that is already being felt worldwide. But no coastline compares to Jakarta, the fastest-sinking megacity on the planet. Over the past 25 years, areas of Indonesia’s capital city have sunk more than 16 feet. 

A high-density Southeast Asian metropolis notorious for traffic and poor air quality, Indonesia’s capital faces a perfect storm of environmental threats. To solve them, the country’s government has decided to move the capital somewhere else entirely.

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The Nature Of Climate Change

An archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia has the world’s fourth-largest population and is also home to one of the largest economies on earth. Home to more than 10.5 million people, the megacity of Jakarta has become an increasingly-difficult place to live—the island is surrounded by the Java Sea, which is rising incrementally. More shockingly,  the land that the city itself is built on is sinking thanks to the digging of thousands of illegal wells, which have not only depleted groundwater resources, but destabilized the ground itself. Today, 40% of Jakarta lies below sea level, and flooding is increasingly common.

This effect, combined with growing urban sprawl, has limited the replenishment of underground aquifers, essentially causing the land to sink while the Java Sea around it rises. Scientists predict that a quarter of the city could be underwater by 2050.

These challenges are compounded further by socioeconomic issues. Jakarta’s population density exacerbates inequality, with wealth concentrated in the city center and poverty in the outskirts. The capital relocation is seen as a strategic move to redistribute development and alleviate the environmental and social pressures on Jakarta.

In response, the Indonesian government is drawing up plans to create a brand-new capital city—Nusantara—a futuristic city about 800 miles away, built on the island of Borneo.

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Building Nusantara

First proposed in 2019, Indonesian president Joko Widodo's plan to establish the city of Nusantara—an old Javanese term meaning "archipelago”—entails constructing a new city essentially from scratch. Initial estimates were that some 1.5 million civil servants would be relocated to the city, though ministries and government agencies are still working to finalize that number.

The government’s ambition is for the city to be a model of urban sustainability, with a target of completing relocation and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. The projected features of this climate-resistant city are certainly ambitious—all of the high-rise buildings will incorporate eco-friendly construction, and the majority of travel within the metropolis will be accessible via public transport, walking, or cycling.

Residents will have access to recreational green spaces and complete digital connectivity, which will be entirely powered by renewable energy sources. Ten percent of the city’s area will be devoted to food production, 60%of the city’s waste will be recycled by 2045, and 100% of wastewater will be treated by the city’s water management system by 2035.

Work is already underway on the new capital, and a completion date has been set for the first of the phases of development, involving relocating key administrative offices. Widowo, who is leaving political office at the end of the year, is aggressively campaigning to make as much progress as he can on construction in his remaining window of presidency. Although it will ultimately take decades to build the foundational infrastructure needed for a new capital city of Indonesia, the developers see it being a hub that will bring millions of new jobs to one of the world’s most rapidly-developing economies.

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The Cost Of A Capital

Making this sustainable utopia a reality will not come cheaply. The cost of building the new capital is estimated to be more than $34 billion dollars. While the Indonesian government has found wealthy international investors willing to shoulder much of the price tag, the financial dilemma has been a subject of recent international climate debates, with many asking why Indonesia, as a developing nation, should be financially responsible for the damage resulting from the emissions of wealthy developed nations.

Preliminary environmental impact surveys also point out that the new city may come with its own environmental complications. Located in the Malay Archipelago and known for beaches and tropical rainforest, the island of Borneo is shared by the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, Indonesian Kalamintan, and the tiny nation of Brunei and is known for its beaches and tropical rainforest.

Building on an island with vast tracts of forest that are a crucial carbon sink may end up canceling out many of the highly-touted sustainable features of Nusantara. Development at such a scale in East Kalimantan also unlocks potential threats to Borneo’s delicate flora and fauna—most notably, the surrounding forest is home to leopards and orangutans.

A new state-of-the-art capital doesn’t solve the living crisis faced by millions in Jakarta who can’t afford to relocate. It’s also likely that moving to Nusantara only offers a temporary solution to an increasingly pressing problem. The new capital city will still be exposed to the increasingly-extreme rainfall and flooding in the region.

The project also raises concerns about the potential impacts on local communities, including Indigenous populations, in the seaport area of Balikpapan. The government has cited public participation and consultation as integral to addressing these concerns and ensuring that the relocation benefits all segments of society. 

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Across The Archipelago: Indonesia’s Capital Shift

The relocation of Indonesia’s capital is more than just a physical move. “We want to build a new Indonesia,” Widowo told The New York Times. “This is not physically moving the buildings. We want a new work ethic, new mind-set, new green economy.”

The ongoing construction of Nusantara is sure to bring significant change to Indonesia and the world—social, environmental, and political. That being said, the effect that it will have on Jakarta and those who choose to remain there is unclear.