Why is Jakarta Sinking? And How to Fix It?

As you all know, Jakarta is the capital of the 4th most populous country on earth, Indonesia. It is home to roughly 10.56 million people as of 2022. Furthermore, it is a vital global epicentre in trade and geographical importance. It stands likewise however, as the fastest sinking city in the world.

History

To understand the conundrum the megapolis is in, we should look back to the age of the Dutch colonial era. Ever since the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch had been industrialising and constructing infrastructure to sustain their growing population. It was built over a massive delta and hectares of marshland, inherently existing as a low-lying area, in favour of the replication of a ‘canal-city,’ as seen in Dutch and Danish architecture; where 13 major rivers and streams run through the heart of the city for easier commerce and transport networks.

Due to the dominance of apartheid and the influence of the former colonial administration, residences were separated into sections with respect to the hierarchy; where every ethnic group was confined to a city quarter. Most of the population relied on these aqueducts for drinking water, sustenance, transport, dumping, and even defecation; it was and still is a lifeline for the populi.

As a consequence of mismanagement, these canals quickly deteriorated, as sediments from earthquakes blocked the in-and-out current/flow of water. The water in the canals eventually turned stagnant, and soon lethal. Diseases such as typhus, malaria, cholera, and influenza ravaged these canals with quantities in the thousands dying from the neglectful oversight. These same issues plague riverside residents to this very day.

The majority of the Chinese and native Indonesians were limited to areas close to the rivers; whereas the Dutch relocated further inland, safer from those canals and away from ‘peasant regions’.

Instead of repairing and maintaining the canals, the Dutch instead assembled pipe-water systems, which extracted freshwater from natural aquifers – an untapped and abundant source at the time – as the city lies in particularly damp and moist climates. The rest of Batavia’s inhabitants soon followed suit, but only after several decades of unsanitary conditions.

Uses of water

The current uses of ground/pipe water range anywhere from agriculture and food supply, to factory production and the manufacturing of consumer goods. According to Kompas, a well-known national newspaper outlet, 40% of all water in Indonesia was used for irrigation, aeration of crops and the inundation of used lands to increase soil fertility.

This is an essential step in securing national self-reliance, as the main source of the country’s food supply is rice; the most inefficient ‘daily-bread’ crop in comparison to sweet beets or potatoes. Rice is the main problem: tying up water supplies in favour of heavy irrigation instead of a balanced, ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ doctrine.

12% is then relieved for residential use (cooking, washing clothes, direct consumption, janitorial cleaning, etc.), whilst another 14% is used for commercial purposes (breweries, dairy industries, sugar mills, restaurants, and car-washing). In terms of practicality, it provides sufficient supply for the local population while compromising on the secondary and tertiary sectors for financial growth.

The rest is then mitigated for both government (controlling the flow of rivers, canal blockage in case of flooding, etc.) and factorial production (textile fabrication, smelting facilities, petroleum distribution, food processing)

Regional Issues

After Indonesia’s independence, large swathes of the common population heavily relied on ground water for their sustenance and is widely used in daily lives; often conducting unregulated diggings of water wells, and aquifer pumps as a channelling source. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of families without any alternatives, and an exponentially rising population; you have a major problem.
Think of the dirt in Jakarta as a sponge, one that floats above water (the aquifers); as these aquifers get used up, the ground naturally falls from its weight and the lack of buoyancy. The ‘water in the sponge’ also as may be expected, will be diverted into filling these aquifers, accelerating the fall. Usually, this wouldn’t be the problem, as these aquifers would be replenished annually from the El-Nino monsoon rains; except that now, 95% of the city has been entirely concretised, populated with buildings, roads and residential housings, blocking the much-needed entry of rainwater into the soil, preventing accumulation and percolation.

This is further worsened by the clogging of waterways. The majority of the population, both young and old, are largely unaware and uneducated of the posing risks of littering and mass dumpings of rubbish and disposables, both bio and non-biodegradable. Furthermore, there isn’t any effort to reduce the rate of these waste disposals, nor campaigns for environmental awareness. This is likely due to the lack of investment, enforcement of laws, and facilities to deal with debris scattered throughout every alley and building: big and small, ranging from paper to plastic.

The government is required and responsible to act quickly, to offer substitutes such as clean piped water; however, many efforts are thwarted by political instability, volatile economic situations, and worst of all, major corruption scandals as seen with the E-KTP project, ultimately failing. Actions such as the progress of deconcretisation, the diversion and entire reconstruction of ancient and poorly maintained sewer systems, due to the initial labyrinthine and Daedalian system of intertwining conduits and aqueducts.

To elaborate on the volatile economic situation, to invest billions of dollars in city development would almost certainly cause a financial crisis and the monumental devaluation of the Rupiah and mass unemployment.

This then leads to the next problem; where city, if not region-wide political riots will occur. Pushing for labour reforms, tax cuts, the termination of many industrial projects, and the likes. Eventually, erupting to the shattering of status-quo of an already teetering country; calling for political resignations over the underdevelopment of other areas, and the federal/bureaucratic use of centralisation.

Any efforts to fix any of these have been futile, and conservatives have lobbied to have the administrative capital be moved to Kalimantan, under the name Nusantara. Essentially, diverting all investment and resources to that region, abandoning Jakarta as a whole.

Indonesia as an archipelago, and a country of thousands of islands, has by birth suffered from logistical challenges such as the slow movement of material and transportation of goods, often costing more to get something from Jayapura to Jakarta than Plymouth to St. Petersburg. This makes any form of local investment unattractive to begin with.

However, these all dwarfed in comparison to the largest problem: Land Use Inappropriation. The cancer of the city is the thousands of kilometres of undesignated and unrestrained building activities throughout the Greater Jakarta area. Informal squats and slums taint the maps and occupy much-needed land that should’ve been delegated to factories and economic productivity; whilst unevenly distributed construction of residential and commercial buildings, varying in size, value, significance and strategic location from both rich and poor residents of the city, create a natural social and economic barrier. One could be made out of marble and granite, the neighbouring site could be of broken ceramic tiles and 40-year-old raw concrete.

If you are wondering why this has anything to do with Jakarta’s sinking, it is mainly because areas like these surround channels of water; including rivers, streams, and tributaries. Houses and sewer outages dominate the adjacent landscape instead of pumps, flood barriers, bridges and dams.

Global Issues
Jakarta has received assistance from many neighbouring countries including giants such as China and Japan; but only in industry and economic activity in the form of foreign investment. Often ignoring the environmental concerns of the sinking of Northern Jakarta; the only country reliable enough to build long-lasting dams and canals is none other than the Netherlands, even the Zuiderzee Works (a land reclamation project and the prevention of floods in the form of a series of dykes, dams, and water drainages) have been appointed as the “7 Wonders of the Modern World.”

This doesn’t come as a surprise as both landscapes of Batavia and Amsterdam share similarities, such as their location both settle over deltas. However, the caveat is the reluctance of the majority of the population and the government to cooperate with former colonisers, which is an issue of national pride and history. Instead, choosing to look inwards, to private local industries to sponsor such a project.

Solutions

At the rate at which the government is making decisions, Jakarta is practically unsavable, and the Northern areas will be doomed in less than five decades. The only way to prevent this is the simultaneous attempt of enacting:

- The elimination of corruption
- The education of the population,
- An increase of investment in janitorial/waste disposal services,
- The construction of water control facilities/infrastructure,
- The education and spread of awareness of littering,
- The changing of sewer routes and pipelines,
- The ban on tapwater the subsidisation of piped water and such facilities, the deconstruction of several key diverting locations,
- The general deconcretisation of the city,
- The replenishment of aquifers,
- The relocation of residential areas,
- The passing of a Land Use Appropriation law,
- The discontinuation of the Nusantara Project.

Easier said than done, near to impossible.