Many of us are probably aware of the city of Miami, FL, where sea levels are rising each year. Halfway across the world, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is facing a different problem: it is literally sinking. It is a city of 10 million and is sinking 25cm annually. It doesn't help that it's on swampy land and has 13 rivers through it.
Experts say that by 2050 about 95% of North Jakarta will be entirely submerged. The average sinking rate for the city is about 10cm per year. Why is this happening? The excess water from climate change is a factor, but the city's unregulated pumping of groundwater is also causing the city to sink. The government has tried to enact regulation, but many people keep on pumping water illegally because they can't trust any other sources for clean water. The city's rivers are heavily polluted, as you probably would have guessed.
There's simply no other cost-friendly way to prevent water from coming in except for dikes. There is technology to replace groundwater that's deep beneath the surface, called artificial recharge. Tokyo used it 50 years ago, but the government had a big role in restricting extraction. However, land subsidence was halted. This could work in Jakarta, but even its dike and artificial wall system, the Great Garuda, which is not too expensive is funded in part by South Korea and the Netherlands.
It's a huge problem that shouldn't be shared by Jakarta alone, as many coastal cities around the world face this issue.
https://newrepublic.com/article/123216/miami-sinking-beneath-sea-not-without-fight
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44636934
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