In late August, Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, announced that Indonesia will be getting a new capital city, as a result of the city continuously sinking into the Java sea. The new city will be built in Borneo, an island 105 miles (1169 km) away from Jakarta. Although many coastal cities are sinking of climate change, Jakarta will be the first city to entirely move out of the area.
One possible reason for the sinkage is because of the use of groundwater in the city. Jakarta heavily relies on groundwater for its daily uses, because the area’s surrounding natural waters are unreliable or inaccessible. The result of this is that the land, no longer supported by the water, will begin to sink or shink.
Another major reason as mentioned before is the rise of sea levels, caused by climate change. The world’s ocean levels are rising because of the melting of ice in the Arctic region and from the continent of Antartica. With only 26′ above sea level, the risk of flooding in the region is especially high.
Photo by Bayu Syaits on Unsplash
