Indonesia's President Joko Widodo recently announced a plan to relocate the capital city Jakarta to East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. With parts of the capital city sinking as much as 25cm annually, by 2050 around 95% of North Jakarta is predicted to be totally submerged. Despite being home to more than 10 million inhabitants, its swampy land has never been an ideal location.
Sitting on the edge of the Java Sea with 13 rivers running through it, and with high tides and heavy rainfall frequently coinciding the past few decades, regular flooding has become a part of life for Jakartans.
The extraction of groundwater water from the city's aquifers has also led to serious land subsidence. Add to this lax regulation allowing private residents, business owners, and shopping malls, to draw their own water supply, and you begin to understand the gravity of the problem.
The new capital is expected to be located between Kutai Kertanegara and Penajam Paser Utara, two relatively undeveloped regions of the country. According to a BBC report, President Widodo said: "The location is very strategic – it is in the centre of Indonesia and close to urban areas."
"The burden Jakarta is holding right now is too heavy as the centre of governance, business, finance, trade and services." Also, the new proposed location was at minimal risk to natural disasters. Costing upwards of IDR466 trillion (USD32.8 billion) to relocate, its cost should be compared with Jakarta's daily traffic jams that cost the economy more than IDR100 trillion a year.
Hopefully relocating the capital to Borneo will help reduce those convoys of luxury cars accompanied by motorcycle escorts that you always see during rush hour traffic jams, cutting the traffic line and causing even worse traffic congestion.
Building the new capital city close to the biggest cities in East Kalimantan, Balikpapan and Samarinda, will allow it to take advantage of their existing infrastructure and airports. An area of some 3,000 hectares will be prepared for the first phase of the new capital's development, including government and legislative buildings, growing as large as 300,000 hectares.
As a travel and lifestyle publication, what intrigues us is how it may change the character of Jakartans who have had it so good and for so long. And who now risk sharing the self-appointed title of top dog with those political and economic elites that will be created or relocated and based out of Kalimantan.
Prepare for the "movers and shakers" of Kalimantan. Rest assured plans will already be in the pipeline to buy up land to build resorts, hotels and private residences. And how long will it be before we are publishing a What's New Kalimantan newsletter, highlighting the best places to eat, drink, stay and party? The positive is that low key and lesser-known destinations in Kalimantan will become more popular, hopefully creating a boom in the local economy.
The negative is that without proper planning and building legislation, unfettered economic growth will seriously damage the environment of East Kalimantan. Let us pray that we do not merely replicate Jakarta, warts and all, on a greenfield site, when presented with the perfect opportunity to shine and show the rest of the country, and the world, what Indonesia can do. All eyes are on you, Mr President.
But a key question to ask is this. If the relocation master plan succeeds, what should we name the new capital city? Also, did you know that this is not the first time that we move our capital city?
Please send in your suggestions.
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Thank you for staying in touch with us, and the Island of the Gods.
Cheers,
Tressabel Hutasoit
Editor What's New Bali
