The WIRED magazine published an article, "The Sea Is Consuming Jakarta, and Its People Aren't Insured," in which it looked at Jakarta is sinking, and at the worst possible time. Journalist Matt Simon states, "As sea levels creep higher, the coastal megalopolis continues to pump too much water from its underlying aquifers, causing the land to collapse by almost a foot a year in some places. A modern city, home to 10 million people, is in danger of disappearing: According to one researcher’s models, 95 percent of north Jakarta could be submerged by 2050.
It’s a slow-motion disaster made all the more dire by the fact that very few people in Jakarta have insurance, one of the handful of things that can help a population ride out rising seas and fiercer storms. Just how small is Indonesia’s insurance industry? Well, it has 300 fully accredited actuaries—the professionals who calculate risk—a number it's scrambling to boost. In Canada that number is 3,400, and it’s got a seventh the population that Indonesia has. And, of course, its capital city isn’t sinking and flooding the way Jakarta is.
To make matters worse, Jakarta’s poorest and most vulnerable residents—those least able to afford insurance—often live in the most flood-prone places."
With the help of the Faculty of Mathematics READI project, Indonesia will produce 745 new graduates in actuarial science.
Full article: WIRED