More Environmental Comedy From Indonesia - New Borneo Capital Will Be A "Tree City" [View all]

[hatrack]

With its capital Jakarta continuing to sink into the Java Sea, the government of Indonesia has chosen a location to build a new capital from scratch. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced on Monday that the new city will be in the East Kalimantan province, on the lush island of Borneo. While poor urban planning has burdened Jakarta with traffic congestion, overcrowding, and severe air pollution—the worst in Southeast Asia, according to a Greenpeace study—the government promises the new capital will be smarter, cleaner, and greener.

The first phase of the new city will encompass nearly 5,000 acres. Construction of this phase is planned to begin in 2021 and be finished by 2024, according to the news site Mongabay. The entire city, targeted for completion in 2045, will occupy about 495,000 acres of land, two-and-a-half times the size of New York City. The Indonesian government says at least 50 percent will be open green space, with parks and gardens, as well as a zoo and a sports complex, “integrated into the natural landscape such as hilly areas and river systems,” in the words of planning minister Bambang Brodjonegoro.

It’s all part of a grand strategy to make Indonesia’s capital a “forest city”—one that will not only leave Borneo’s protected forests undisturbed, but will also “restore the environment in Kalimantan,” Brodjonegoro said.

The news comes months after Jokowi—motivated in part by the need to cement his anticipated reelection win—vowed to take action on a capital relocation plan that’s been talked about for decades. Jakarta is currently home to 10 million people, and the new capital city is slated to accommodate up to 1.5 million of them, mostly government employees and their families. The island of Borneo and the Kalimantan province had been rumored to be the chosen sites, which naturally has environmentalists concerned.

EDIT

https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/08/indonesia-new-capital-borneo-jakarta-sinking-environment/596824/