Sinking Jakarta, Rising Nusantara

SOMETHING WILL DISAPPEAR, SOMETHING WILL APPEAR

Ashok SILWAL

In few years, the teacher will ask to the student, ‘Which the capital of Indonesia?’

The student will answer, ‘Jakarta !’

The teacher will reply, ‘No! The new capital is Nusantara on Borneo Island.’

‘Oh! Really?’, The student will say astonished.

‘Now, listen to the story,’ says the teacher.

At the end of January, the Indonesian government voted in favor of moving the capital from Jakarta, which is located on the island of Jakarta, to Nusantara, a city that does not yet exist.

The transfer will begin in two years and will last approximately 15 years, for a cost of about 40 billion dollars .

Jakarta has become an unlivable city. According to a recent study, the life expectancy of its inhabitants shrank by five and a half years due to pollution.

Moreover, the city is particularly exposed to natural disasters, which are increasingly frequent due to the climate crisis. The rising oceans cause floods, aggravated by the sinking of the city soil.

This is lowered by 2,5 meters every 10 years because the underground water is pumped in huge quantities, creating cavities that weaken the soil and make it sink.

The area has become very vulnerable.

The project involves the construction of a city of almost 60.000 hectares ( Kathmandu is today about 90.000 hectares ) but then it will expand more.

Some ecologists, however, fear that the construction site could destroy part of the extraordinary biodiversity of Borneo. The island, for example, has already lost many forests.

The Indonesian President Widodo promised a green capital with parks and gardens, but did not erase the fears.

People will be able to move on foot or by bicycle. Transport will be electric to limit greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible.

In addition to the environment , the other fear is the risk that the original population of the place ( about 20.000 persons) must move. For now, no protection measures have been announced for them.

Indonesia is not the only country to have made a similar decision.

In Malaysia, where the capital is Kuala Lumpur, at the beginning of the 2000s, the administrative and judicial capital became Putrajaya (where, for example, the Ministries are already located.)

Putrajaya is about 30 km from Kuala Lumpur and has about 100.000 inhabitants, although it can host more than 300.000.

In Myanmar, the new capital, since 2005, is Naypyidaw. The historical capital was Rangoon, 300 km south from the new one. The military in power decided to transfer it, without explaining the reason .

In Egypt, a similar project is on the way. About 50 km from Cairo, the capital, several buildings have risen from the sand. The new administrative capital does not still has a name.

Once finished, it will welcome 6 million people on an area similar to the size of London or New York.

How much the work will cost? About 50 billion dollars but the outcome of the project is still uncertain, perhaps a little utopian.

So SOMETHING WILL DISAPPEAR, SOMETHING WILL APPEAR.

Let us hope and think that it will be for the good of humanity and the earth !

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