IKN Nusantara Project Area Submerged by Floods

On March 17, Sepaku district in the new capital city of Nusantara suffered from flooding due to high-intensity rains in the upstream area. The Regional Disaster Management Agency confirmed that at least three neighborhood units and 20 houses were inundated in the Sepaku Village, with a water level of 40-50 centimeters. Pandi, a resident whose house is located nearby the Sepaku River, claimed that floods occur one to two times a year, but recede more slowly since the construction of the IKN project began. Floods have occurred in the Sepaku area 15 times from 2019 to January 2022, according to the BPBD. Jubain, head of the Indigenous Balik Tribe in the Pemaluan Sub-District, suspected that the floods occurred due to the activities of industrial forest concession (HTI) companies in the river upstream. He also claimed that the Thursday’s floods in his area were the worst since 2010. Sibukdin, the head of the Indigenous Balik Tribe in Sepaku village, said floods have occurred since the 1960s after the land in the upstream area of the Sepaku River was exploited, causing the river to be shallow and narrow. He assessed that the flooding in Sepaku might have been exacerbated by the building of the Sepaku River Intake, prepared as a raw water supply for the IKN project, which is adjacent to the residents’ rice fields. The ring one area of IKN, which covers 180,965 hectares, has 162 mining concessions, HTI companies, companies that own forest concession rights (HPH), oil palm plantations, coal-fired power plant projects, and property areas. The Jatam data showed that 158 of the 162 concessions were coal pits, which still left 94 gaping mine pits.