More than a third of Jakarta's population lives in the city's slums. According to the Jakarta Post, the only solution to the city's infrastructure problem is an injection of funds, which one article posits should come from a transfer of the nations capital.
According to the World Bank, the city grows by an influx of about 250,000 newcomers per year - ten percent of the city's current estimated population. That's like having more than two thirds of the population of Victoria move to Jakarta every year. And these people aren't moving there because the city promises them great wealth. They are moving there because the countryside is even poorer.
These statistics make the situation seem hopeless, but people like Ronny Poluan are working to make a difference.
Poluan is a Jakarta artist with an interest in improving the lives of city residents. He does this by offering tours of the city and using the proceeds to help provide low-income micro loans and medical care to the slum communities.
While critics seem to claim that Poluan himself is profiting off of the tours, I think that that the Jakarta Post's solution would likely result in a smaller percentage of funds going straight into these communities.
You can see for yourself how the people of Jakarta's slums feel about these tours in the video below:
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