Jakarta Sinking: Giant sea wall project addressing rising sea levels

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Experts say the Indonesian capital, Jakarta is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world. The government is well aware of the problem, and is now making wholesale efforts to slow down the process. Through one highly ambitious project, it's constructing a series of sea dikes to stop the seawater from further submerging the city. CGTN's Silkina Ahluwalia has more from Jakarta.

Ismail has been living in North Jakarta for 20 years. In recent years, sea levels have transformed his village into a floating town. To keep the town from being completely submerged, the Indonesian government is building sea dikes under the Giant Sea Wall project.

ISMAIL RESIDENT "We hope that the embankment project will be completed quickly and we will soon be moved to the flats as promised by the Jakarta city government, because the condition of our house is not getting better, it is increasingly becoming damaged."

Residents like Ismail has no choice but to accept the consequences. Jakarta is already sinking at a rapid rate, almost 20 centimeters per year in some areas.

SILKINA AHLUWALIA JAKARTA, INDONESIA "Experts say this area, the center of Jakarta, is most vulnerable to the sinking phenomenon in the years to come. Many of the office buildings, five-star hotels and shopping malls here are extracting water without permission using their own groundwater pump."

That heavily triggers land subsidence, a major cause for the city sinking. The government is working to strictly regulate those building owners.

For now, they hope the Sea Wall can help to prevent major flooding. Inside the wall, large lagoons are constructed to stop the outflow from 13 major rivers in Jakarta.

ANDI BASO SENIOR ADVISOR, NCICD "We have been doing research on this issue since 2009. It is not a simple matter. We have no other solution. This Sea Wall has to be built because Jakarta is sinking fast. We have to stop the seawater from entering the city because there is no way we can redirect that amount of water anywhere else. We hope to complete the project by 2025."

Andi says this is the only way to save Jakarta from sinking faster and further and avoid seawater from inundating the homes of residents living in coastal areas. Silkina Ahluwalia, CGTN, Jakarta.