In 2018, the World Economic Forum declared Jakarta as the fastest sinking city in the world with an average sinking rate of 3 to 13 centimeters per year, three times higher than it was 20 years ago.

One of the identified causes was overextraction of groundwater, which accounts for 70 to 80 percent of land subsidence in Jakarta, while weak soil was another factor.

The city’s heavy reliance on groundwater is mainly due to a lack of access to piped water. Since it was installed back during the Dutch colonial era, the centralized water distribution network has neither served the majority of the population nor fulfilled their water needs. The current service coverage is said to have reached 65 percent, yet the piped water infrastructure still struggles to provide water to 50 percent of the city’s population, with the majority of customers coming from middle to lower income households.