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View all search resultsUrban living dangerously
As Jakarta aims for global city status, a string of fatal infrastructure failures reveals the deadly cost of government neglect and unmanaged urban growth.
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Dug up: Unfinished excavation work hinders pedestrian mobility on Sept. 22, 2025, in Jakarta. (The Jakarta Post/Iqro Rinaldi)
G
oing about everyday life has become increasingly hazardous in Jakarta, a sprawling metropolis home to 11 million people that aspires to be a world-class, livable global city. Instead, dangling overhead utility cables and unfinished, exposed construction projects plague its streets and neighborhoods.
These issues are far more than mere eyesores; they represent a severe and present danger to pedestrians and motorists alike.
The lethal consequences of this negligence were underscored last month by two separate infrastructure-related fatalities. On June 16, a 16-year-old high school student died in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, after the motorcycle she was riding on became entangled in a low-hanging cable. The impact threw her onto the road, where she was fatally struck by a passing school bus; the driver of the motorcycle survived with injuries.
Just two weeks later, a four-year-old boy fell into an unsecured, 4-meter-deep pit at a construction site within a community park in Tebet, also in South Jakarta, while playing with friends at night. The site, located near the densely populated neighborhood of Manggarai Station, was part of a municipal project to build a sports court. Although rescuers extricated the child hours later, he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
The list extends further. Also in June, an explosion at a water pipe installation site in Fatmawati, South Jakarta, injured two workers following a technical failure.
In response to growing public outrage, the Jakarta administration has promised to accelerate the relocation of overhead utility networks underground and to tighten enforcement against utility companies that fail to maintain public infrastructure. However, while safety is a paramount concern on any construction site, urban projects demand even greater scrutiny due to their immediate proximity to residential areas and heavy pedestrian traffic.
These tragedies renew valid concerns over the safety of construction and utility works across the capital, where road excavations, exposed wiring and abandoned projects routinely sit in public spaces for months. In 2023 alone, at least three people were severely injured after becoming entangled in low-hanging cables.
