Jakarta Is Crowded And Sinking, So Indonesia Is Moving Its Capital To Borneo

"Indonesian President Joko Widodo says his country will create a new capital city on the island of Borneo, revealing new details about his plan to move the central government out of Jakarta. The capital's current location faces a number of problems, including the fact that it's sinking."

"Widodo's announcement Monday comes months after he said he wanted to move the capital, seeking a place that can offer a break from Jakarta's environmental challenges as well as its relentlessly gridlocked traffic."

"While rising seawater levels from climate change are a widespread concern for island and coastal areas worldwide, experts say Jakarta has played a central role in its own predicament."

"'Jakarta's problems are largely man-made,' NPR's Merrit Kennedy reported earlier this year. 'The area's large population has extracted so much groundwater that it has impacted the ground levels, and many surface water resources are polluted.'"

"As it looked for a new capital, Indonesia's state planning and development agency, called Bappenas, chose the Kalimantan site because it fit all the government's criteria, 'including being relatively free from earthquakes and volcanoes,' The Jakarta Post reports."