Jakarta may sink by 2050 hence Indonesia has decided to change its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara. It is located deep in the jungle of Kalimantan on Borneo island. A bill seeking the same was approved by the parliament earlier this week.
Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said in a press conference on Tuesday that there will be five stages of development in the new capital city. The first stage is expected to begin in 2022.
According to a report in CNN, the new project is likely to cost around 466 trillion rupiah ($32 billion).
Where is Nusantara located?
Indonesia will move its capital to mineral-rich East Kalimantan, an Indonesian province on the island of Borneo.
The name of the new capital will be Nusantara which means “archipelago” in Javanese. It will be based in the regions of North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has selected the new name from more than 80 options.
Suharso Monoarfa, the national development planning minister, said “Nusantara is chosen because it reflects Indonesia’s geography, and is iconic internationally“
While Jakarta will remain Indonesia’s commercial and financial centre, government administrative functions will move to East Kalimantan, about 2,000km (1,250 miles) north-east of Jakarta.
The total land area of Nusantara will be around 256,143 hectares (around 2,561 square kilometres) – almost all of it will be converted from the forest area, according to data released by the National Planning and Development Agency
Why is Indonesia changing its capital?
The idea behind relocating the capital is to relieve some of the burdens on Jakarta and the island of Java. Not just one, but there are several reasons due to which the Indonesian government decided to shift its capital.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday, “The government has conducted in-depth studies in the past three years and as a result of those studies the new capital will be built…”
Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Jakarta, its current capital, is located on the island of Java.
It has been projected that Jakarta, home to 10 million residents, will sink in the next 30 years, i.e. by 2050. So Indonesia has decided to change its capital to Nusantara
The World Economic Forum had earlier said Jakarta “sits on swampy land” and is one of the fastest-sinking cities on Earth. It is also prone to flooding.
A research earlier found the main cause of the problem is overuse of groundwater by home drilling, a report said.
“If we look at our models, by 2050 about 95 per cent of North Jakarta will be submerged,” Heri Andreas, who has studied Jakarta’s land subsidence for the past 20 years at the Bandung Institute of Technology, was quoted by BBC as saying in 2018.
Jakarta faces other environmental threats with the city’s air quality plunging over the last few months.
It is also one of the world’s most overpopulated urban regions.
Jakarta Vs Kalimantan
The future sinking and air pollution in Jakarta is one reason. The other is Kalimantan’s location in the country.
Kalimantan is more central in Indonesia’s archipelago of 17,000 islands.
“The location is very strategic – it’s in the centre of Indonesia and close to urban areas,” the president was quoted as saying.
“The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the centre of governance, business, finance, trade and services,” he said. By relocating the capital, the government hopes to redistribute wealth.
Moreover, the island of Java, where Jakarta is located, is home to 60 per cent of the country’s population. However, East Kalimantan has only 3.7 million people residing in the area.
Kalimantan is also almost four times bigger, but accounts for less than a tenth of the gross domestic production, reports said.
What are concerns over shifting of Indonesia capital?
Kalimantan is known for its forests and orangutan population. Also, major mining activities take place in this area.
Critics argue that the construction of Nusantara will lead to the expansion of palm-oil plantations and logging in an area rich in diverse wildlife and lush rainforests, reports said.
However, a minister said the “existing protected forest” will not be disturbed.
“We will not disturb any existing protected forest, instead we will rehabilitate it,” the planning minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post.
Previously, Brazil, Myanmar, Egypt and Kazakhstan have also moved their capitals.
