Brave New City

Hello everyone! Last week, we ended the “To Move or Not To Move” series. Today it is time to be transported into a whole new series where we will delve deeper about the new capital city of Indonesia!

 

From our previous posts, we have already seen how Jakarta is polluted, crowded, and sinking at an alarming rate. Hence, the reason why the government want to relocate the capital is due to the severe and irreversible environmental impact that are faced by Jakarta.

New Capital!

 

The Indonesian government introduced the idea of relocating the capital city to East Kalimantan. Kalimantan is the Indonesian part of Borneo;   an island shared with Malaysia and Brunei. As of now, the new capital is planned to be located partly in Penajam Paser Utara district and partly in Kutai Kertanegara district.  The new capital will be roughly three times the size of Jakarta and located near Balikpapan, a major oil, gas and financial centre in Kalimantan. It is envisioned to be a ‘green and smart’ capital city and the plan is one that is ambitious: they aimed to hatch a masterplan by 2020, start construction by 2021, and begin to move in 2024. Yet, clearly, the plan is being delayed due to the widespread pandemic that is happening in 2020.

 

The area is chosen because East Kalimantan has a low risk of natural disasters. It is also strategic as it is in the geographical centre of Indonesia. The economic reason for choosing Kalimantan is also because of the fact that the island of Java now contributed to a total of 58 per cent of Indonesia’s total economic output Hopefully, this move (which is quite a literal one) will reduce inequality problems that are faced by Indonesians and enable Indonesia to have a new effective centre of administration.

A picture of Orangutan in Kalimantan by Pat Whelen ( Cr : Pexels )

There are some concerns that are being raised by many environmentalists and critics, though. Firstly it could lead to widespread deforestation and exacerbate the pre-existing forest fire. It could also lead to flooding downstream.  Another issue is the potential for loss of wetlands and mangrove habitat in Balikpapan Bay, and the issue of the loss of biodiversity, particularly Orangutans which are endemic to the Kalimantan. Furthermore, as a site with an abundance of coal reserve, critics are afraid that the Indonesian government will fall back on the use of coal-generated power plant which can contribute to an increase in emission of greenhouse gases, aggravating the current contemporary climate change. There is also the issue of water scarcity and security in the area.  

 

Will the cost outweigh the benefit of moving the capital to Borneo? Should the Indonesian government relocate the capital?

 

Stay tuned next week to assess the negative impact that the relocation might bring!

 

2 thoughts on “Brave New City

  1. Hi Sherry,

    As always, I find your blog an interesting one and this post gives a brief insight into the issues/benefits you’d be pointing out in future posts.

    I’m not too sure how the move will worsen current forest fires. Is it linked to clearing of forested land to make way for the new capital? I assume potential flooding is due to the removal of the forest, rather than a due to some unique geographical reason at the site?

    I’m afraid I’m not too familiar with Borneo (much less the Kalimantan portions), some sort of illustration of that location in relation to the rest of the island may be useful if it is hard to obtain copyright-free maps.

    Looking foward to your next post.

    ~Ee Kin

    1. Hi Ee Kin! Thank you for your kind compliment (:

      You are spot on! The clearing of forested land and the building of new roads which cuts through the forest disrupts the continuity of forest cover. Other than that, more slash-and-burn deforestation happens near the area. On top of that, the inflow of migrants to the area might encourage agriculture expansion, which requires burning of land. This also increases the risk of fires. And yes, the potential flooding is due to the increase in the potential of Hortonian Overland Flow due to the higher rate of rainfall intensity as compared to the infiltration capacity ( which is reduced greatly because of soil compaction ). You can read more about these in my next post 😉

      Also, thank you for your suggestion! Here is the map of the new proposed capital of Indonesia.

      Hope it helps! (:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *