Greater Jakarta, the world's second largest conurbation – part 2

Abstract

The past 40 years has seen an astonishing growth of the city of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, extending from the core city, which in 1970 housed <5 million people. Today, the main city is home to more than 10 million permanent residents, classifying it as one of the world's 28 megacities, of which 16 are in Asia. The city's population increases by 2·5 million during working days, but physically the city has simply merged with its suburban satellite towns such that Greater Jakarta, generally referred to as Jabodetabek, caters for a population of 29 million, which is expected to increase to 50 million over the next 30 years, putting Greater Jakarta firmly in the metacity category. As elsewhere, Jakarta is grappling with all the technical, administrative and social problems that rapid urbanisation entails, compounded by a problem of serious subsidence of surface sediment brought about by long-term and continuing underground water abstraction. Dealing with this, together with water supply, wastewater, sanitation, solid waste and other utility issues such as power and telecommunication are, and remain, high on the city development agenda for the foreseeable future. This paper looks at these problems and makes recommendations for the future development of Jakarta as a sustainable metacity.