Southeast Asia’s Sinking Megacities

Once a blessing, water is now a perpetual curse.

Smothered in concrete and with a dearth of green spaces, greater Bangkok, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City hold their collective breath every monsoon season. In Southeast Asia’s over-urbanized megacities, there is often little warning for residents before havoc breaks out: Within a couple of hours, large swathes of land are quickly inundated as lackluster drainage systems are rapidly overwhelmed, becoming like giant bathtubs.

Despite people’s best efforts to slow down the onslaught of water with sandbags, emergency pumping stations, and temporary barriers, they are of little help as storm surges from the nearby seas leave the water nowhere to go. Everyone knows about it, but no one knows what to do.

Water has always been the driving force in the development of these cities. Built on the foundation of vital waterways by a combination of rain, rivers, and the sea, the Chao Phraya Delta (Bangkok), Mekong Delta (Ho Chi Minh City), and Ciliwung Delta (Jakarta) are at great future risk for permanent, massive land losses in the next few decades.