In eastern Borneo, beyond the thick jungle forests, an epic building project is under way. Giant trucks, cement mixers and diggers lumber along battered roads. Cranes tower overhead. Yellow dust clouds the air, caking everything in reach: the leaves of eucalyptus trees, the sides of passing vehicles and the homes of nearby residents.
This site – a 2,560 sq km area encompassing industrial plantations, mines, Indigenous communities and agricultural land – is to form Nusantara, Indonesia’s new administrative capital.
The decision to move the capital to a new site was taken because Jakarta is rapidly sinking. In a single year, some areas of the capital subside by as much to 11cm, a problem driven by excessive groundwater extraction and rapid urban development. On
