Jakarta is sinking. Will building a new capital save it?

The Global Story

Indonesia is building a brand-new capital city - twice the size of New York – in the middle of a rainforest. The current capital city, Jakarta, suffers from pollution, congestion, flooding, is prone to earthquakes and is also one of the fastest sinking cities in the world. The new high-tech metropolis called Nusantara aims to be carbon-neutral and better protected from natural disasters. But the project is facing some major hurdles and has fallen well behind schedule.

On this episode Caitríona Perry is joined by Astudestra Ajengrastri and Rebecca Henschke to find out if Nusantara can live up to its environmental promises and if Jakarta will still be saved from sinking beneath the ocean.

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This episode was made by Alice Aylett Roberts and Beth Timmins. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The assistant editor is Sergi Forcada Freixas and the senior news editor is Richard Fenton-Smith.