UNS — Mechanical Engineering Program Faculty of Engineering (FT) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta held a guest lecture event discussing the new capital for Indonesia. Dr. Andang Bachtiar, Indonesian Geologist Association Supervisory Board (IAGI), was invited to the event led by Prof. Yusep Muslih as the moderator.
Dr. Andang Bachtiar delivered a speech entitled ‘Belajar dari Air, Belajar dari Batu, Ibukota Negara di Sepaku’ (Learning from Water, Learning from Stone, Our Capital in Sepaku). As a geologist, Dr. Andang has studied the geological phenomenon in Sepaku, Kalimantan Timur, since 1984. Even though currently living in Paris, in 2019, he conducted research in the Kutai Basin, Sepaku Subdistrict, Samboja, Kalimantan Timur.
Dr. Andang explained that the new capital has three sections. The center for governmental activities is 5,644 hectares, capital areas with 42,000 hectares, and the area for development with 180,965 hectares in Penajam Pasir Utara District, Sepaku Subdistrict. “Compared to Jakarta with its 66,000 hectares, the new capital is smaller than Jakarta. The main governmental area is similar to Jakarta Pusat,” he explained, Monday (10/5/2021).
Dr. Andang added that the main governmental area would have the presidential palace, state institutional offices, cultural park, and botanical garden. The capital will also include a residential area for police and army forces, educational and health facilities, the tech industry, research center, shopping center and malls, and diplomatic compound. “The developmental area will have a national park, zoo, non-civil servant residence, seaport, and airport. Lastly, developmental area 2 will have metropolis and development area,” he added.
Even though the new capital is located in the coastal area, but the geological structure contains old rock structures. From the nine rationales presented by the Minister for Public Works and Human Settlements (PUPR), Andang focuses on four factors. The area is free from tsunami and earthquake risk, land slope and carrying capacity, water source availability, free of flooding risk, and forest fire. However, almost half of the area is filled with coal mining concession.
“(We) can imagine there are many former coal mining areas there. Besides that, about oil and gas activities, in the new capital, there are oil fields such as Mutiara, Samboja, and Sungai Nangka. There are ten measuring section tracks in the whole area or the development area, seven wells, ten key seismic tracks, and five times commercial and non-commercial field trip for oil and gas exploration since 2004-2019,” he explained.
He argues that Kalimantan is the safest place from the earthquake but has Adang fault in the south that border Barito and mountains and Kutai basin.
“In the north, there is Mangkal highland, Bengalun fault, which connects to Mangkal from Palu. The areas in Kalimantan that are safe from an earthquake are Pontianak, Palangkaraya, while in Tarakan is crossed by faults,” he concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti