How Indonesia Is Accidentally Sinking Their Capital

Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, is the fastest-sinking city globally, primarily due to uncontrolled groundwater extraction caused by a failed water privatization scheme orchestrated by former President Suharto.

• Jakarta is the world's fastest-sinking city due to human-induced factors.

• Corrupt water privatization led to dysfunctional piped water and reliance on groundwater.

• Excessive groundwater extraction causes the land to subside, making the city sink.

Jakarta is rapidly sinking, forcing Indonesia to plan a new capital. This crisis stems from a 1990s decision by then-President Suharto to privatize Jakarta's water system, awarding control to his son's business partners, Suez and Thames Water. This move led to a dysfunctional, expensive, and contaminated piped water system, compelling residents to illegally extract vast amounts of groundwater, which causes the city's land to subside.

Jakarta's Sinking Crisis

• 00:00:14 Jakarta is the fastest-sinking city in the world, with some neighborhoods having subsided by 15 feet in recent decades. The severity of this issue prompted Indonesia to announce plans to relocate its capital, constructing a new city with modern amenities. This rapid subsidence is not a natural phenomenon but a man-made problem directly linked to poor governance and infrastructure decisions within Jakarta itself.

Water Privatization Disaster

• 00:01:37 Former President Suharto orchestrated a controversial privatization of Jakarta's water system in the 1990s, using a World Bank loan to transfer control to two European companies, Suez and Thames Water, which had a business partnership with his son. This privatization proved disastrous, resulting in deteriorating infrastructure, increased costs, and widespread water contamination, leaving about a third of the population without piped water and others paying high prices for undrinkable water.

Groundwater Extraction

• 00:03:08 The failure of the privatized water system forced Jakarta residents, from individual homes to large malls, to drill into the underlying freshwater aquifer for their water needs. This uncontrolled and unmonitored extraction of groundwater rapidly drains the aquifer, which acts as a 'giant pillow' supporting the city. As the aquifer depletes, the ground above it subsides, causing the city to sink dramatically.

Proposed Solutions

• 00:04:37 One major proposed solution to Jakarta's sinking is the 'Great Garuda' project, a 25-mile seawall designed to protect the city from the Java Sea and convert Jakarta Bay into a source of clean drinking water. However, many scientists predict this seawall could instead create a stagnant, polluted bay, failing to prevent flooding. Ultimately, improving the city's water infrastructure to reduce reliance on groundwater extraction is crucial for slowing Jakarta's subsidence.