Slow Clap Presents: Jakarta, a City Half Sunk

Real Story.  Real Stupid.

Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia with a population of 10 million people.  Jakarta is the fastest sinking city in the world with almost half of its area already below sea level.  It is estimated that by the year 2050, 95 percent of North Jakarta will be submerged.  There have been ideas over the last few decades to relocate the capital city but that plan has yet to come to fruition.  This is reminiscent of the Simpson's episode 'Trash of the Titans' where Homer ruins the city with garbage and Springfield is relocated 5 miles down the road.  

The relocation of Springfield.

So why is Jakarta sinking?  A variety of reasons that are all manmade.  Jakarta is a coastal city and is therefore easily impacted by rising sea levels.  Many coastal cities are feeling the impact of rising sea levels and that comes from climate change.  Climate change causes the polar ice caps to melt and that created more water.  Thermal expansion is another effect of climate change which causes the existing water to expand due to increased temperature.

Another reason Jakarta is sinking is due to excessive water extraction.  The city has very little piped municipal water so 60 percent of residents, businesses, and commercial buildings must pump water from aquifers.  This groundwater extraction is poorly regulated and much of the population takes much more water than they are allowed.  Businesses and commercial buildings need a license to pump water but many do it without the proper licensing that regulates the amount of water that can be extracted.  When you pump water out of the aquifers that the land sits on the land settles and sinks.

How can Jakarta be saved?  There are a few ideas that are all fantastic.  They are already building the Great Garuda across Jakarta Bay, a sea wall that is designed to help keep sea water out.  They are also building 17 artificial islands that are supposed to help along with a lagoon that will lower water levels and will allow the city's rivers to drain.  There are ideas to use artificial recharge, an extremely expensive method of managing sinking ground that Tokyo used some 50 years ago.  The biggest and most fought solution is to stop taking water from the aquifers.  To stop taking water from the aquifers there would need to be another source of water, which Jakarta actually has.  The problem with all of Jakarta's water from rivers and natural sources is that they have polluted them so much that it would take 10 years to clean up the rivers enough to be usable for humans.  Finally, another solution to the sinking city is to relocate.

My two cents:  I'm not sure where to start.  Jakarta is a self-made problem that wouldn't even be a problem if the rivers weren't so polluted.  It really serves as a cautionary tale for where the rest of us are going to be if we keep polluting and warming the planet.  

Rating:  I give the sinking city of Jakarta 2 out of 5 possible slow claps.  Why 2 slow claps?  I just picked it really which I can do because I write the blog.  When you write, you choose.

The Citarum River, an alternate water source for Jakarta.