Rising sea levels and sinking ground threaten the future of the Indonesian megacity, which faces increasingly frequent floods. Confronted with mounting challenges, the authorities are searching for solutions, the most radical of which is to move the capital. Sitting under the porch of their modest home, Dede, Chandra and their daughter Saphira watch us approach. In front of them, a construction site where several labourers are at work stretches along the entire street. The builders’ job is to raise, by one metre, the dirt road that cuts through this block in Muara Angke, a slum in northern Jakarta. “Just yesterday, the water came up to here,” Dede says, pointing to the doorstep. Last year, the family didn’t have such a lucky escape. Water entered their home, and that of their neighbour, Saphira’s grandmother. “I had to leave in a hurry. I lost all my electronic devices,” the elderly woman says. Just 20 metres from the shoreline, the houses in this neighbourhood, which sit slightly ...
