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Joshua Irwandi

The Indonesian government plans to build its new capital city on this site, a paper-industry forest in the East Kalimantan province of Borneo. This is what the site looked like in October 2021; construction is to begin in August 2022.

Rush hour traffic streams past the Menteng Pulo cemetery in South Jakarta. Besides flooding, the city also struggles with air pollution: It is home to more than 20 million registered vehicles, of which 80 percent are motorbikes.

The Waladuna Mosque in Muara Baru in North Jakarta has been affected by coastal floods since 2000 and is now no longer used.

Fishermen carry fish in crates in the port of Muara Angke, in North Jakarta, one of the most rapidly subsiding and frequently flooded parts of the city. Fishers here worry that the government's planned coastal protection measures will limit their access to the open sea, the source of their livelihood.

Workers dredge the Ciliwung River in East Jakarta, in November, in advance of the rainy season, in the hopes of improving the flow in the river and reducing flooding.

At Cilincing, a fishing village in North Jakarta, the Rawa Malang River flows into Jakarta Bay; the city center lies on the horizon, about 10 miles to the southwest. This area floods constantly during the rainy season, but the government is building a wall along the coast to hold back storm tides.

Residents of Pesanggrahan in West Jakarta wait out the 2020 flood on their second floor. The flood caused an estimated £57 million in damages.

The floods on January 1, 2020, which killed 66 in Jakarta, were the worst since 2007. Here a motorbike tries to cross an intersection in Puri Indah, West Jakarta.

The skyscrapers of central Jakarta loom to the northwest beyond Kampung Melayu, an urban village crowding the banks of the Ciliwung River—one of 13 that flow through the Indonesian capital. Jakarta, a megacity built on a delta, is sinking rapidly and floods often.