Our neighbour Indonesia has not been spared with its capital Jakarta now under threat of being submerged after it began sinking over the past few decades. Often, such a phenomenon is attributed to the rising sea level. However, some quarters have claimed that another factor is at play in Jakarta. They pointed to the extremely high number of wells being dug up by locals as being the cause, which has exacerbated the problem.
In 2007, it was reported that 80 people died due to a flood that has been described as the worst to have hit Jakarta. They built pumps to extract water stored in the aquifers – porous, underground layers of rock which contain groundwater. And this month , a ban is expected to take effect preventing buildings larger than 54,000sq ft from extracting groundwater.