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posted by martyb on Monday August 26 2019, @11:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the can-you-say-land-speculation? dept.

Jakarta Is Crowded And Sinking, So Indonesia Is Moving Its Capital To Borneo

Indonesian President Joko Widodo says his country will create a new capital city on the island of Borneo, revealing new details about his plan to move the central government out of Jakarta. The capital's current location faces a number of problems, including the fact that it's sinking.

Widodo's announcement Monday comes months after he said he wanted to move the capital, seeking a place that can offer a break from Jakarta's environmental challenges as well as its relentlessly gridlocked traffic.

While rising seawater levels from climate change are a widespread concern for island and coastal areas worldwide, experts say Jakarta has played a central role in its own predicament. "Jakarta's problems are largely man-made," NPR's Merrit Kennedy reported earlier this year. "The area's large population has extracted so much groundwater that it has impacted the ground levels, and many surface water resources are polluted."

Jakarta has a population of around 10 million, with 20 million more in the greater metropolitan area.

Also at NYT and CNN.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:08AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 27 2019, @12:08AM (#885863)

    I'm pretty sure their labor is cheaper and so are the building codes. You'll see empty coffee cans used for rebar.

  • (Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:40PM

    by PocketSizeSUn (5340) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:40PM (#886873)

    Basic construction (concrete and steel) runs about 1/10th to cost due to cheaper labor and material. Wood is generally expensive (similar in pricing to usa costing), although the wood types are generally prized here (teak and ironwood).