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ENVIRONMENT Indonesia's giant capital city is sinking.The skyscrapers of central Jakarta loom to the northwest beyond Kampung Melayu, an urban village crowding the banks of the Cili...Show more BYADI RENALDI PHOTOGRAPHS BYJOSHUA IRWANDI, VII MENTOR PROGRAM PUBLISHED JULY 29, 2022 15 MIN READ

JAKARTAApart from the narrow, unpaved road, the two-meter-high concrete coastal wall is the only thing that separates Suhemi's small restaurant in North Jakarta from the sea.In Muara Baru, the storm surge collapsed the wall, and the sea flooded Suhemi's house.Indonesia has grand plans for Jakarta--a new capital on Borneo, a giant bird-shaped sea wall to protect Jakarta itself--but they don't solve the underlying problem.In 2002, the government built the coastal wall, to give the residents peace of mind and time--a respite from the steady sinking of the land under the city and the steady rising of the sea.Driven by a storm coming off the Java Sea and torrential rains, the floods claimed 80 lives around the city and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.Can the government's plan save it?

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ENVIRONMENT
Indonesia's giant capital city is sinking. Can the government's plan save it?
Indonesia has grand plans for Jakarta—a new capital on Borneo, a giant bird-shaped sea wall to protect Jakarta itself—but they don’t solve the underlying problem.

The skyscrapers of central Jakarta loom to the northwest beyond Kampung Melayu, an urban village crowding the banks of the Cili...Show more
BYADI RENALDI
PHOTOGRAPHS BYJOSHUA IRWANDI, VII MENTOR PROGRAM
PUBLISHED JULY 29, 2022
15 MIN READ

JAKARTAApart from the narrow, unpaved road, the two-meter-high concrete coastal wall is the only thing that separates Suhemi’s small restaurant in North Jakarta from the sea. Her family depends on that wall. Growing up here in the Muara Baru neighborhood in the 80s and 90s, Suhemi used to play on the beach in front of her house. But by the 2000s the beach had disappeared, and the sea frequently inundated the neighborhood.

In 2002, the government built the coastal wall, to give the residents peace of mind and time—a respite from the steady sinking of the land under the city and the steady rising of the sea. But just five years later, in 2007, the wall proved no match for the worst floods in Jakarta’s modern history. Driven by a storm coming off the Java Sea and torrential rains, the floods claimed 80 lives around the city and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.

In Muara Baru, the storm surge collapsed the wall, and the sea flooded Suhemi’s house.