Indonesian President Joko Widodo insists Jakarta’s giant sea wall ‘must be done quickly’ to protect sinking capital
- Jakarta has been described as one of the world’s fastest-sinking cities – a result of geographic misfortune and mismanagement
- Planning for a giant sea wall encircling Jakarta Bay began about a decade ago but implementation has been slow
Indonesia’s president said in an interview that he wants to see the speedy construction of a giant sea wall around Jakarta to prevent the low-lying capital from sinking under the sea, lending renewed backing and a sense of urgency to a slow-moving and politically contested mega project.
President Joko Widodo and his government are up against a tight timetable, including a forecast by experts that at the current rate, one-third of Jakarta could be submerged by 2050.
The existential crisis facing the city is the culmination of decades of unfettered development, almost nonexistent urban planning and misrule by city politicians who have served private interests over those of the public.
Lacking a comprehensive piped water network, industry and homeowners have tapped into the city’s aquifers, causing rapid subsidence in northern Jakarta, home to several million people.
In this area, the swampy ground has been sinking at an average of about 10 centimetres a year. Rising sea levels from a warming planet will compound the problem in decades to come.
Widodo on Friday said it’s time to move ahead with the sea wall, a project the government first began to consider a decade ago.
