Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Indonesia has decided to shift its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara, owing to the floods in Jakarta and the predictions that it shall sink completely by 2050. This would be world’s first case where country’s capital will shift due to threat of natural calamity.
Jakarta is known as fastest sinking city in the world and studies have forecast that the entire city could sink by 2050, while flooding is a recurring problem. Hence on January 18, Indonesia’s Parliament approved a bill to relocate the country’s capital from Jakarta to a new city to be built on the island of Borneo — Nusantara.
Homes and businesses have been submerged by floodwaters in the Indonesian capital Jakarta since December 2, 2021. Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency said that 9 neighbourhoods remain underwater as of December 7.
Jakarta, where some areas of the city are sinking 20cm (7.8 inches) a year, is one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. About 40% of Jakarta is below sea level and there are predictions that sizable portions of it could be underwater by 2050. In August 2019, the country announced plans to move its capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo in 2024.Nusantara translates as “archipelago”, when government offices are relocated to the province of East Kalimantan from Jakarta, on the island of Java.
President Joko Widodo first announced the plan to move Indonesia’s capital in 2019, in an effort to relieve the huge environmental challenges facing Jakarta, and to redistribute wealth.
The move has been delayed due to the pandemic, but could go ahead in 2024. The government hopes it will reduce the burden on Jakarta, a city of 10 million, which is notoriously congested, suffers regular flooding due to the over extraction of groundwater.
Parts of north Jakarta are falling at an estimated 25cm a year, due to subsidence – including even the seawall designed as a buffer for communities.
The new name had been selected from more than 80 options by Widodo and was chosen because it reflected Indonesia’s geography, and was iconic internationally.
Some have pointed out that the choice could prove confusing since Nusantara is also used to refer to the archipelago nation as a whole. Others have questioned why Nusantara, an old Javanese term, was selected when the new capital was being built in Kalimantan.
By relocating the capital, the government also hopes to redistribute wealth. Java is home to 60% of the country’s population and more than half of its economic activity – even though Kalimantan is almost four times bigger.
