Dying Capital

Jakarta is home to the population of 10 million and is disintegrating at an alarming rate due to land subsidence caused by poor urban planning and climate change. As a resident of Jakarta, I’ve have been documenting this ongoing process since 2017. I have explored all corners of Jakarta to document inhabitants’ desires, vulnerabilities, and questioning the definition of home as their living space slowly sinks into silence.

With sinking speed ranging from 1 to 15 cm/year, the majority of the capital's coastal area has been submerged in water for more than 30 years. Some areas even have subsidence rates as high as 20 to 25 cm annually. The subsidence is just one in a myriad of infrastructure challenges Jakartans must deal with daily.

The most affected area is North Jakarta. In the last ten years, this area has sunk as much as 2.5 meters, and it’s still sinking up to 25 centimeters each year in some places. This speed of sinking is twice as high as the average land subsidence in other large coastal cities worldwide. (NGI,2018).

Unfortunately, land subsidence occurs throughout the entire capital at different rates. If this situation is allowed to continue, scientists estimate that in 2050 floods will cover over 160.4 square kilometers, or 24.3% of the total city of Jakarta, as a result of both land subsidence and the climatic change. (2013 - 2022)