The Indonesian authorities will build a new capital, because Jakarta is gradually going under water

The capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, is gradually going under water and by 2050 a third of the city may be flooded. The government has approved a plan to move the capital to an island in the jungle in the province of East Kalimantan. The future new capital already has a name - Nusantara.

The new city will grow about 2000 km from the place where the capital of Indonesia is now located. It will occupy an area of about 560 sq. km. In general, about 2,600 square kilometers have been allocated for the project, the rest is reserved for expansion in the future.

This will result in the relocation of 1.5 million of Jakarta's 10.5 million population, as projections suggest that by 2050 about 95 percent of North Jakarta will be flooded.

The first plans of the new capital represent a utopian plan aimed at creating an environmentally friendly "smart" city, but some details have already been officially confirmed. In particular, the construction of new government offices and a 150-meter-high presidential palace in Nusantara.

Environmentalists criticizing the government's plans to move the capital, argue that the project could damage ecosystems in the region. Mining and palm oil plantations are already causing huge damage to the rainforests, which are home to endangered species of Borneo, including orangutans.

The construction of Nusantara was supposed to begin in 2020, but these plans were prevented by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The development of the territory will now take place in several stages until 2045.

The Ministry of Finance has stated that the first phase of resettlement will begin between 2022 and 2024.

Plans to move the government out of the Jakarta metropolis, which suffers from chronic traffic jams, floods and air pollution, have been put forward by several presidents, but none of them has progressed as far as the current president of Indonesia.

The new city is named after Nusantara. This is the Javanese name of the Indonesian archipelago. It is estimated that a third of Jakarta could be flooded by 2050