Jakartathe gigantic capital of Indonesia is sinking. Their 10.5 million inhabitants They coexist with a saturated, polluted and submerged city: around 40% of its surface is already below sea level, and the land is giving way at the rate of 17 centimeters per year. A silent catastrophe that could transform the city into a submerged memory before 2050.
Faced with this emergency, the Indonesian government made a drastic decision: abandon Jakarta. The solution was not to save the sinking city, but to build another one from scratch. This is how Nusantara was born, the new capital that aspires to be the futuristic version of Indonesiaalthough the risk stay in a desert of concrete, glass and cement without urban life.
The name Nusantara, a Javanese term which historically designates the Indonesian archipelago, has become the mark of national hope. The city is located on the island of Borneo, in the East Kalimantan region, chosen for its low risk of natural disasters and for its central location in relation to the country: 1,200 kilometers from Jakarta, far from the sinking lands.
The plan originated in 2019 during the tenure of President Joko Widodo. With an initial budget of 45 billion eurosNusantara should be a canvas for the futureaccording to Widodo. The idea was not only to avoid sinking, but to balance the economic inequalities between Java, the most populous and richest island, and the rest of the archipelago, made up of 17,500 islands.
The town, officially called Ibu Kota Nusantara, extends over 2560kmfour times Jakarta and the New York double. It includes government, residential and urban development zones, with the promise of sustainable design: predominant public transport, 100% renewable energy and over 60% green space.
But reality began to clash with expectations. After Widodo left in October 2024 and Prabowo Subianto arrived, state funding fell to less than a third of what was planned. Private investment has also been insufficient and the city currently has barely 2,000 civil servants and 8,000 construction workers. Futuristic buildings and clean streets risk becoming a simulacrum of a capital without inhabitants.
In addition, the environmental cost has been enormous: more than 2,000 hectares of mangroves cut downaccording to the NGO Walhi, and an irreversible impact on species in danger of extinction. Nusantara promises to be green and technological, but so far it is a project with huge gaps between vision and reality.