JAKARTA
Jakarta is a big, sprawling, dirty, steamy hot city with crowded slums, monsoon flooded districts, thistle-like skyscrapers, traffic-clogged streets, and shacks and street stalls intermixed with modern buildings built with Western money. There are around 10 million people in the city and another 20 million around it. By some counts Jakarta is the fastest growing major metropolis in the world, expanding at a rate of 4.4 percent a year. Greater Jakarta grew from 2.8 million in 1950 to 15 million in 2000 and is home to around 31 million people today. During the day the number in the city proper increases by 2 or 3 million as commuters make their way to work in the city, and decreases when they go home in the evenings. When it was under Dutch control before World War II, Jakarta was known as Batavia then spelled Djakarta. Indonesia was known as the Dutch East Indies.
Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia, but in 2019 plans were announced to move the capital of Indonesia to Kalimantan in Borneo because Jakarta is too crowded, sinking and often flooded. But for now Jakarta it is still the seat of the national government as well the home of a large provincial government and Indonesia’s main political scene, with the Presidential Palace, national government offices, Parliament, and the Supreme Court all located in the city center.
Jakarta is the chief port and major financial, commerce and banking center of Indonesia but not its cultural center. Jakarta began as a colonial outpost set up by the Dutch. The cultural centers and traditional home of the Javanese royalty have been in Solo and Yogyakarta in eastern Java. But Jakarta is the center of Indonesia’s popular culture and its modern music, media, film and publishing industries. Jakarta’s attractions include a few interesting museums and some interesting colonial buildings in Kota (Old Jakarta). The city has vibrant nightlife, lots of good place to eat and multicultural scene with Indonesians from all over the archipelago: Ambonese. Madurese, Timorese and Batiks. The main ethnic groups in Jakarta are Sundanese, who predominate in the surrounding province of West Java, and Javanese. There is a substantial Chinese population and tens of thousands of expatriates.
The province of Jakarta has rapidly expanded through the years, absorbing many villages in the process. Jakarta in fact is a conglomeration of villages known as kampungs, now crossed by main roads and super highways. This explains why you can be cruising down a wide avenue and then suddenly find yourself squeezed into a small street jammed with cars and motorbikes. The names of the former villages can be detected from their main streets: Tanah Abang, Kebon Kacang, Kebon Jeruk, Kampung Melayu, and other. In case its often a mess and a good map, or a well-tested GPS navigation system is strongly advised even for finding well-trodden tourist destinations.
Geography of Jakarta
Located on Jakarta Bay on the north coast of western Java, Jakarta covers 590 square kilometers. It is currently ranked as the world’s 21th largest city but greater Jakarta ranks as the world’s fourth largest metropolitan area and covers over 1,000 square kilometers (400 square miles). It rivals Bangkok in terms of pollution and traffic congestion but not in terms of things to do and see. Most tourists visiting Indonesia give it a miss. Some that do a layover at Jakarta’s international Airport, chose to sleep in the airport rather than deal with going into the city.
Jakarta is built on a wide flat delta, intersected by 13 rivers. In the Bay of Jakarta are a large number of tiny islands, known as the Thousand Islands or Pulau Seribu, where tourists can snorkel, swim and escape the city. To the south are the towering volcanoes of Gede and Pangrango, where the cool mountain retreats of Bogor, Puncak, Sukabumi and Bandung are situated. Construction in and around the city is booming, and includes hotels shopping malls, apartment complexes To reach the far-flung destination scattered across the sprawling metropolis, the government has built toll roads to ease congestion through and over Jakarta’s busiest centers though these are often clogged like ever other major road in Jakarta, especially during morning and evening hours, which can last three or four hours.
The Province of Greater Jakarta is comprised of six municipalities: 1) Central Jakarta which includes the Merdeka Square and the elite residential area of Menteng; 2) South Jakarta, which includes the districts of Kebayoran and Bintaro; 3) West Jakarta, where some of Jakarta’s tallest buildings and major hotels have recently been constructed; 4) East Jakarta, site of the Indonesia in Miniature Park as well as many industrial estates; 5) North Jakarta, the city’s prime trading area and site of Jakarta’s beach recreation Ancol Dreamland; and 6) the Thousand Islands, some 76 idyllic islands lying in the Bay of Jakarta.
Jakarta Named the World’s Largest City in 2025
A United Nations report that came out in November 2025 listed Jakarta as the world’s largest city with 41.9 million people living there, followed by Dhaka in Bangladesh, with to 36.6 million, with Tokyo in third with 33.4 million people. Jakarta rose from second place to replace Tokyo, which had been named the world’s largest city in the UN’s most recent assessment published back in 2000. [Source: Lyndal Rowlands, Al Jazeera, November 26, 2025]
The World Urbanization Prospects 2025 report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs also found that the number of megacities — urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants — has increased to 33, four times more than the eight megacities that existed worldwide in 1975.
Jakarta suffers from a number of problems, including rising sea levels, with estimates suggesting that as much as a quarter of the city could be submerged by 2050. The situation has become so severe that the Indonesian government has begun developing a new purpose-built capital, Nusantara, located in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
Even as government functions shift to Nusantara, Jakarta’s population is expected to continue growing. The United Nations projects that an additional 10 million people could be living in the city by 2050. This rapid growth will intensify existing challenges, including inequality and the rising cost of living. Public frustration over these conditions has already surfaced, with large protests highlighting the struggles of low-income workers, including app-based motorcycle drivers and delivery riders.
The UN’s latest urban assessment also reflects changes in how cities are defined, aiming to address inconsistencies across countries. In most cases, the report measures individual urban areas rather than combined metropolitan regions, with only a few exceptions. Under the updated definition, a city is considered a “contiguous agglomeration” of one-square-kilometer grid cells, each with a population density of at least 1,500 people per square kilometer and a total population of at least 50,000.
History of Jakarta
Jakarta was where Indonesia proclaimed Independence on August 17, 1945, which was the outcome of the National Awakening Movement in 1908 and the Youth Movement against colonialism since 1928. Jakarta was also where the ongoing Indonesian Reform movement started in 1997. Jakarta, formerly known as Batavia, was the seat of the Dutch East India company, VOC, and later of the colonial government over the then Dutch East Indies.
Originally a small fishing village known as Jayakarta or Sunda Kelapa, Jakarta was trading center used by Arabs, Indians, Indonesian ethnic groups and Chinese before the arrival of Europeans. When Portuguese (the first Europeans in the region) arrived in 1522 it was a bustling port for the Hindu Pajajaran dynasty. The Dutch captured it in 1619 from a Muslim saint and transformed it into a major port called Kota and then Batavia. Out of swamps and coconut groves the Dutch built a large fortress, canals that rivaled those in Amsterdam, ornate churches, lavish mansions and neat street grids. Jayakarta means “victorious.”
At its height Jakarta was known as the “Queen of the East” and boasted warehouses filled with spices that were as valuable as gold. When the Dutch spice monopoly ended in the 18th century, the city declined. The canals became clogged, malaria became a serious problem and the fortress was demolished. In the early 20th century some large administrative buildings were built. When Indonesia became independent it reverted back to a form of its original name—Jakarta. In the 1970s many new high-rise buildings were built and the downtown shifted to where these buildings were built.
According to “Cities of the World”: “In the 16th century, Jakarta, called Sunda Kelapa, was the chief port for the Sundanese (West Javanese) kingdom of Pajajaran. Later, the Sultan of Bantam changed the name to Jayakarta, "Glorious Fortress" in the Sundanese language. At the end of the 16th century, Dutch and Portuguese traders struggled for a foothold on Java. Since it was difficult for foreigners to pronounce Jayakarta, the name was changed to Jakarta. Eventually, the Dutch won possession of Java and established a fortified trading post at Jakarta, which they renamed Batavia.
For three-and-a-half centuries after the Dutch arrival, Batavia was the focal point of a rich, sprawling commercial empire called the Netherlands East Indies. In older sections, Dutch-style gabled houses with diamond-paned windows and swinging shutters are still found. The canals, narrow downtown streets, and old drawbridges will remind you of the city's Dutch heritage and early settlers. [Source: Cities of the World, Gale Group Inc., 2002, adapted from a 2001 U.S. State Department report]
“Eventually, more modern sections of the city were built some eight miles inland. Indonesia became a sovereign State on December 27, 1949; the next day Batavia was renamed Jakarta. The city has grown rapidly in population from about 600,000 in 1940 to over 11 million. Physically, Jakarta has changed much in the last decade. A modern center with hotels, restaurants, and tall office buildings now has grown up amidst the crowded "kampungs" often with banana groves and rice paddies reminiscent of rural Java. Infrastructure, roads, electric power, and water supply are vastly improved, and new housing and apartments have gone up. With Jakarta's expanding boundaries, most Americans and other foreigners live in newer suburbs, such as Kebayoran, Five miles from downtown. Air pollution and traffic congestion are increasing problems.”
Early History of Jakarta
According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism: “Since the fifth century, ships from China and Champa (Vietnam), and from all islands in the archipelago docked at the mouth of the Ciliwung River. Indian and Portuguese traders also visited this small town. Javanese sailors, carrying spices from Molucca, were also docked there. Between 17th and early 18 centuries, ships could sail further up to the river Ciliwung. Towards the south of this drawbridge, the once busy harbor town of Sunda Kelapa stretched along both sides of the river between the 12th century and 15th century.
“Sunda Kalapa was the main port of the Hindu Kingdom of Sunda. The capital of the Pakuan Pajajaran kingdom was located two days journey upriver, now known as Bogor. Ships often visited this port from Palembang, Tanjungpura, Malacca, Maccasar and Madura, and even by merchants from India and South China. Sunda Kelapa exported, among other items, pepper, rice and gold.
Portuguese in Jakarta
“In 1513 the first European fleet, four Portuguese ships under the command of Alvin, arrived in Sunda Kelapa from Malacca. Malacca had been conquered two years earlier by Alfonso d' Albuquerque. They were looking for spices, especially pepper, to this busy and well-organized harbor. Some years later, the Portuguese Enrique Leme visited Kalapa with presents for the King of Sunda. He was well received and on August 21, 1522 signed a treaty of friendship between the kingdom of Sunda and Portugal. The Portuguese received the right to build a go down (warehouse) and to erect a fort in Kalapa. This was regarded by the Sundanese as a consolidation of their position against the encroaching Muslim troops from the rising power of the Sultanate of Demak in Central Java.
“To commemorate this treaty, they put big stone, called a Padrao, which vanished for some years. This stone was uncovered later in 1918 during an excavation for a new house in Kota area on the corner of Cengkeh Street and Nelayan Timur Street. This Padrao can now be seen in the National Museum on Medan Merdeka Barat Street. The original location of the stone suggests that the coastline in the early 16th century formed a nearly straight line, which is marked by the present of Nelayan Street, some 400 meters south to the Lookout Tower. The King of Sunda had his own reasons for great danger from the expansive Muslim Kingdom of Demak, whose troops threatened his second harbor town, Banten (west of Jakarta). Sunda felt squeezed and was in need of strong friends. Thus, the king hoped the Portuguese would return quickly and help him protect his important harbor. But they came too late. For in 1527 the Muslim leader Fatahillah appeared before Kalapa with 1,452 soldiers from Cirebon and Demak.
“According to some historians, this victory of 1527 provided the reason for Fatahillah to rename Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta, which means "Great Deed" or "Complete Victory." On the basis of this victory, Jakarta celebrates its birthday on June 22, 1527; the day Fatahillah gave the town a name of victory of over Sundanese Hindus and Portuguese sailor. Prince Jayawikarta, a follower of the Sultan of Banten, resided on the west banks of Ciliwung river, which in the early 17th century reached the roughly at our starting place, the Lookout at Pasar Ikan. He erected a military post there in order to control the mouth of the river and the Dutch who had been granted permission in 1610 to build a wooden go down and some houses just opposite there on the east bank. Dutch ships had already come to Jayakarta in 1596. The Prince tried to keep a close eye on these unruly guests.
British in Jakarta
“To keep its strength equal to that of the Dutch, Prince Jayawikarta allowed the British to erect houses on the West Bank of Ciliwung River, across the Dutch go down, in 1615. The Prince granted permission to the British to erect a fort closed to his Customs Office post. Jayawikarta was in support of the British because his palace was under the threat of the Dutch cannons. In December 1618, the tense relationship between Prince Jayawikarta and the Dutch escalated. Jayawikarta soldiers besieged the Dutch fortress that covered two strong go down, namely Nassau and Mauritus. The British fleet made up of 15 ships arrived. The fleet was under the leadership of Sir Thomas Dale, former governor of the Colony of Virginia, now known as Virginia State in the United States.
“The British admiral was already old and was indecisive. After the sea battle, the newly appointed Dutch governor Jan Pieter Soon Coon (1618) escaped to Molucca to seek support. Meanwhile, the commander of the Dutch army was arrested when the negotiation was underway because Jayawikarta felt that the Dutch deceived him. Then, the Prince Jayawikarta and the British entered into a friendship agreement.
“The Dutch army was about to surrender to the British when in 1619, a sultan from Banten sent soldiers and summoned Prince Jayawikarta for establishing closed relationship with the British without first asking an approval from Banten authorities. The conflict between Banten and Prince Jayawikarta as well as the tensed relationship between Banten and the British had weakened the Dutch enemy. Prince Jayawikarta was moved to Tanara and died in Banten. The Dutch felt relieved and tried to establish a closer relationship with the Banten. The Dutch fortress garrison, along with hired soldiers from Japan, Germany, Scotia, Denmark, and Belgium held a party in commemoration of the change in situation. They name their fortress after Batavia to recollect the ethnic group Batavier, the Dutch ancestor. Since then Jayakarta was called Batavia for more than 300 years.
Dutch Takeover Jakarta
“Under the relationship of J.P Coen, Dutch army attacked and destroyed the city and Jayakarta Palace on May 30, 1619. There were no remains of Jakarta except for the Padrao stone now stored at the National Museum in Jakarta. The Jayakarta grave was possibly located in Pulau Gadung. If we stand on top of Menara Syahbandar and look around, we can enjoy the beautiful panorama in the oldest area of Batavia. Certainly, we can't enjoy the remains of the city Sunda Kelapa or Jayakarta. Kasteel or the Dutch fortress, too, has been destroyed. Here we can see several remains from the mid-17th century. Nearly all of the remains are related to trade and sailing.
“Syahbandar Tower was built 1839 to replace the old flagpole in ship dock located right on the side across a river. From the pole and later the tower, officials observed ships about to anchor gave signals. The tower then is used a meteorology post. To the West of the Lookout Tower, we can see the view of the present Bahari Museum. The museum represents a very old and strong edifice with Dutch architecture. The museum also provides several maps of the city, with stages of the city development shown. The museum is part of something in Dutch called Westzijdsche Pakhuizen (Warehouse on the West bank. Here nutmegs, pepper, coffee, tea, and cloth in a large scale were used to be stored.
“The area around Syahbandar Tower was once the center of Kota Batavia. It was the center of a trading network with wide spread agents reaching Deshima (Nagasaki) in Japan, Surate in Persia and Cape town in South Africa. Inter-trade among Asia was more profitable than inter-trade between Asia and Europe. And the Pasar Ikan (Market Fish) once was the pulse. Here, the site where the origin of the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, came from.
People of Jakarta
Jakarta is a multicultural city with Indonesians from all over the archipelago: Ambonese. Madurese, Timorese and Batiks. The main ethnic groups in Jakarta are Sundanese, who predominate in the surrounding province of West Java, and Javanese. There is a substantial Chinese population and tens of thousands of expatriates.
Since the 5th century the area around present-day Jakarta has been an important trading port. People from across Java, but also from Sumatra, Sulawesi, Kalimantan as well as traders from China, India and the Middle East came to settle here, some maintaining their own exclusive communities, others integrating into new communities with the Betawi ethnic group, regarded as the of Jakarta but also recognized as a mix of the original inhabitants and early visitors.
Betawi culture today includes influences of people that reached Jakarta over the centuries. The long process of borrowing and blending Chinese, Arab, Portuguese and Dutch elements with the local culture has produced the colorful, composite Betawi culture. The word “Betawi” is derived from the word “Batavia” the name given to the city by the Dutch.
Especially after independence and the designation of Jakarta as the nation’s capital, people from all over Indonesia have poured into Jakarta. Despite this the Betawi people have held on to their own even though they are now relegated to small pockets in the greater Jakarta metropolis. Most Betawis are small landowners or live from the land. By the Pasanggerahan river, they do their best to protect their areas from pollution and industrialization. The symbol of the Betawi is the huge doll called “Ondel-ondel” that paraded around during weddings and circumcisions.
Jakarta residents are predominantly modern and dress in Western-style clothes but some still wear Indonesian attire. Some are very fashion conscious. Since most residents of the city are Muslims, women wearing the “jilbab” over their hair is a common sight. Like most large Southeast Asia cities, Jakarta has a large population of Chinese, most of whom are Indonesian citizens. They constitute the country's largest non-Indonesian ethnic group. Many have lived in Indonesia for generations and no longer speak Chinese, but most maintain Chinese traditions and family ties. Most Chinese in Jakarta operate businesses. Their district, Kota (or Glodok), has a distinctly Chinese flavor. [Source: Cities of the World, Gale Group Inc., 2002, adapted from a 2001 U.S. State Department report]
“Over 25,000 foreigners live in the Jakarta area. Over 60 nations now maintain diplomatic or consular missions. The U.S., Russia, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan, and Australia operate the largest. Over 6,000 Americans reside in Jakarta—members of U.S. Government agencies, the U.N. and private, nongovernmental agencies, business representatives, and missionaries. Jakarta is the main stop for an increasing number of U.S. business visitors and many American, European, and Australian tourists visit Jakarta each year, usually on their way to tourist areas such as Bali or Yogyakarta.
Learn a few necessary phrases in Indonesian. Not all Indonesians can speak English well. “English is understood by many higher level Indonesian officials, business representatives, and professionals, particularly the younger generation. However, some knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, is needed by foreigners for everyday communication. The older, Dutch-educated Indonesians can speak Dutch, especially those who grew up under The Netherlands colonial rule.
Jakarta's Problems
Jakarta faces mounting urban crises—severe congestion, pollution, frequent flooding, earthquake risks, and rapid land subsidence that is causing parts of the city to sink into the Java Sea. In response, the government has decided to relocate the nation’s capital to Nusantara on the island of Borneo. [Source: Edna Tarigan and Niniek Karmini, Associated Press, January 26, 2022]
Jakarta itself is home to around 10 million people, with roughly three times that number living across its greater metropolitan region. It has been called one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world; at current rates, up to one-third of it could be underwater by 2050. The primary cause is excessive groundwater extraction, compounded by rising sea levels linked to climate change.
Like many big cities in developing countries, poor people from the countryside are pouring into Jakarta and straining its infrastructure, almost to the breaking point. And its only going to get worse. There are now about 2 million people in Jakarta living ins slums, and this will no doubt increase. The traffic is so bad a trip of five kilometers can take more than an hour
Daily life in Jakarta reflects these pressures. In the shadow of modern high-rises, a young boy plays in the business district. Nearby, a man tosses a bag of trash onto an open dump, while in a low-income neighborhood along a polluted canal, a woman carries her baby outside her home. Elsewhere, a worker pushing a cart of gas canisters moves against the flow of traffic, and long lines of vehicles sit stalled in the morning rush hour—scenes that capture both the energy and the strain of life in one of the world’s most challenged megacities.
Despite all this, Jakarta is relatively safe. Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institute wrote: Jakarta’s smog may be deadly and its traffic murderous and the inability of Jakarta’s cabbies to locate any address may well push one’s self-control to the threshold of violence; but with respect to crime...Despite occasional dramatic killings by the gangs that draw sensationalist media attention, Indonesia’s urban gangs come across as rather docile. Jakarta is a remarkably safe city. Even in the vast slums where the state is absent and the gangs rule, the atmosphere of violence is palpably lower than in many of Latin America’s cities. That does not mean that the Jakarta gangs do not exercise a great deal of power and authority over both slum areas and some business parts of the city. Just like in Rio de Janeiro, some gangs may at times have a virtual stranglehold on a neighborhood, complete with checkpoints and controlled entry into the slum.” [Source: Vanda Felbab-Brown, Brookings Institute, February 6, 2013]
Pollution, Flooding and Traffic in Jakarta
Jakarta struggles with widespread environmental degradation. Air and groundwater pollution are severe, flooding is a recurring problem, and chronic traffic congestion is estimated to cost the economy $4.5 billion of dollars each year. The city is shrouded by a thick cloak of smog and has severe water problems. In the early 2000s, only half the population was hooked up to the municipal water systems and only two percent were hooked up to sewage systems. All the rivers are dead, smothered by acids, alcohol and oils. Some of Jakarta’s river are so choked with garbage that some residents make a living by picking through it and collect recyclable materials.
Wastes flow into well water and salt from the Java Sea seeps in aquifers that supply drinking and bathing waters for hundreds of thousands of people. If that wasn't enough water taken from the aquifers is causing the city to sink and neighborhoods to become so flooded they have to be rebuilt every few years to keep them above sea level. Only now is extensive work being done to bring piped water to most of the city. The work is being done by a French and British companies and is expected to be completed in 2025. In the meantime people have to put up with water that is often contaminated and makes them sick.
Jakarta traffic is terrible. Often times it is quicker to walk than drive or take a taxi. In the past the streets were the domain of motorbikes but many of Jakarta's residents own cars, making congestion worse. To ease the traffic and congestion in Jakarta, the city council passed laws banning local forms of transport such as bemos and bakajas. Laws have also been passed that require vehicles traveling during rush hour to have three or more passengers. To get around this law, some drivers pick up street children, paying them a small fee, drive past video cameras monitoring motorists and then drop them off.
Sara Webb of Reuters wrote: “To get a sense of Jakarta's infrastructural shortcomings, start at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Indonesia's busiest. At peak times the queues at the visa and immigration counters snake back several hundred meters, and it can take up to three hours for passengers to be reunited with their luggage. The drive into Jakarta's center provides sweeping views of shopping malls set among slums and densely packed housing. Traffic crawls along at 15-20 kilometers (10-12 miles) per hour, flooding is common during the heavy rains, power supplies are erratic, while Dutch-era canals serve as stinking open sewers for slumdwellers. Only the affluent, ensconced in compounds with guaranteed power and water supplies, live comfortably. [Source: Sara Webb, Reuters, August 26, 2010]
In an article entitled “Jakarta Is Sinking So Fast, It Could End Up Underwater, the Financial Times reported: “In one of the world’s most densely populated cities, where a third are without access to piped water, traffic jams and pollution are ubiquitous and there is no metro system, residents have good reason to want change. Jakarta is a major engine of growth for Indonesia, which has been expanding at about 6 percent a year for the past five years. But, mirroring the rest of the country, the capital’s poor infrastructure has deterred foreign investors. Even though Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, many international companies prefer to locate their regional headquarters elsewhere.” [Source: Financial Times, “April 26, 2018]
Drinking Water Issues in Jakarta
In Jakarta, access to clean water remains a daily struggle for many residents. For Tatihar, a housewife living in West Jakarta, each night ends with a crucial routine: filling five buckets with water from the tap. By morning, the supply to her neighborhood is shut off, sometimes not returning until late at night. If she fails to store enough, her family of 12 must rely on public washrooms and purchase bottled water for drinking and cooking the next day. [Source: Arlina Arshad. Straits Times, November 8, 2016]
Despite living in a major urban center, Tatihar’s experience is far from unique. Many households in Jakarta still depend on bottled water, hauling it home for basic needs. In rural areas, the challenges are even greater. People often draw unsafe water from rivers or dig wells to reach groundwater. During the dry season, when wells run dry, families are forced to buy water at inflated prices from private suppliers.
Indonesia is not lacking in water resources—it has abundant rivers, lakes, and streams—but access to clean, safe water remains uneven. Data from the national statistics agency showed that as of 2014, only about 68 percent of the population had access to clean drinking water, while just 61 percent had basic sanitation. The problem lies less in supply than in management. Weak infrastructure, limited treatment facilities, and environmental pressures from rapid development have all contributed to contamination and shortages in certain regions.
Experts point to systemic issues. Environmental analyst Tarsoen Waryono has argued that the government has not fully utilized reservoirs and dams or invested sufficiently in water treatment systems. While there have been national goals to expand access to clean water and sanitation, progress has been uneven, leaving many communities underserved.
Organizations are working to address the gap. The Singapore-based nonprofit Lien AID has introduced community-based solutions, building small-scale water treatment and bottling facilities that are locally owned and operated. Similar initiatives in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam have helped hundreds of thousands gain more reliable and affordable access to clean water.
Water insecurity is not unique to Indonesia but is a broader issue across Southeast Asia, where pollution, climate change, and limited infrastructure continue to strain resources. For families like Tatihar’s, however, the problem is immediate and personal—turning something as simple as running water from a tap into an uncertain daily hope rather than a guarantee.
Moving Indonesia’s Capital from Jakarta to Borneo
The Indonesian government is in the process of relocating its capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo, where a new city, Nusantara, is being built in East Kalimantan. Joko Widodo, who was President of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024, promoted the move as a solution to Jakarta’s chronic problems, envisioning a “sustainable city” with efficient public transportation, close integration with nature, and a location less vulnerable to natural disasters. He emphasized that the project is more than a simple administrative shift, describing it as an effort to create a globally competitive, innovation-driven city built on green economic principles. [Source: Edna Tarigan and Niniek Karmini, Associated Press, January 26, 2022]
However, critics have raised concerns about the environmental and financial costs. The planned city will cover a vast area in a region known for its biodiversity, home to species such as orangutans and leopards. Environmental groups, including WALHI, warn of risks to water systems, ecosystems, and wildlife, as well as the broader impact of climate change and pollution. The project’s estimated $34 billion cost has also drawn scrutiny, particularly given global economic uncertainties.
First proposed in 2019, Nusantara will be built largely from scratch, including government buildings, housing, and infrastructure. Early plans suggested relocating around 1.5 million civil servants to the new capital, located roughly 2,000 kilometers from Jakarta near the city of Balikpapan. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, currently has over half its population concentrated on Java, making decentralization a key motivation behind the move.
The project is being overseen by an international advisory group that includes Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Masayoshi Son, and Tony Blair. Funding will come partly from the state, with the majority expected from public-private partnerships and private investment. Construction plans include government complexes, roads, and infrastructure linking the new capital to surrounding areas.
Officials aim to complete the core government district by 2024, with an initial relocation of several thousand civil servants and key institutions such as the presidential palace and major ministries. The full transition is expected to unfold gradually, with completion targeted around 2045. Despite these ambitions, uncertainties remain about how the move will affect Jakarta and its millions of residents. Some experts argue that more attention should be given to the social consequences of the transition, including how the city will adapt once its political center shifts elsewhere.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Indonesia Tourism website ( indonesia.travel ), Indonesia government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Japan News, Yomiuri Shimbun, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated in April 2026