JAKARTA

LIKE DAR ES SALAAM, JAKARTA IS

also prone to yearly flooding during the rainy season. Several rivers flow through the metropolitan area and frequently overcome their banks. Compounding the problem of sea-level rise is subsidence: the city itself is sinking. The river delta, upon which the city rests, has been losing sand; the presence of the sprawling city prevents the sand from being replaced naturally by the rivers. Heavy buildings and the extraction of fresh water for drinking have compressed the sand further.

Jakarta has struggled to find resources to build the infrastructure it needs to mitigate flooding. Last fall, a plan to purchase land along the river for the construction of flood-prevention walls was canceled to plug a budget deficit. In 2015, the city installed concrete walls along the Ci Liwung River, evicting settlers and moving them to permanent shelters, but it wasn’t enough to prevent flooding in the heavy rains earlier this year. More than 90,000 people had to be evacuated from Jakarta and more than 60 people lost their lives in the disaster.

Government officials in Indonesia announced a plan last August to move the nation’s capital from Jakarta to Borneo.