The Nation of Indonesia has announced the name of their new capital as the government begins plans to build a sustainable city to replace the current capital of Jakarta that is integrated with its natural environment and has good public transportation.
The city will be named Nusantara meaning archipelago in Javanese and will be located 1300 km away from Jakarta on the island of Borneo, with officials hoping that the new capital will alleviate the many problems in Jakarta including overpopulation, pollution and the alarming rate at which the city is sinking due to over-extraction of groundwater.
Concerns persist however that the new capital’s construction would negatively impact the environment and be too costly of an endeavour at $34 billion USD amid the global pandemic.