Jakarta is facing an ecological crisis with the capital sinking at a rate of 4-6cm a year, faster than any other big city in the world, so fast that rivers sometimes flow upstream, ordinary rains regularly swamp neighborhoods and buildings slowly disappear underground, swallowed by the earth.

Unfortunately for Jakarta’s long-suffering population, instead of addressing the root cause of the problem – rampant unregulated commercial development which successive administrations have allowed to continue for decades – the only solution being offered by the government is building a giant wall to keep the sea out, a solution which environmental experts say will be an environmental disaster and is doomed to fail.