Details of the Giant Sea Wall Mega Project Plan Spanning 575 Kilometres

The government has begun revealing several details of the Giant Sea Wall (GSW), or Giant Sea Wall, construction plan along Java’s North Coast (Pantura). Starting from the threat of land subsidence, the division of the project into 15 segments, relocation of fishermen, to priority areas such as Pekalongan, these formed part of the discussions at the Kick-Off Meeting for Integrated Coastal Protection Infrastructure on Java’s North Coast in Jakarta on Monday (4/5/2026). Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development (Menko IPK) Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) stated that the giant sea wall project is an important step in facing the ‘twin pressure’ threat in the Java North Coast area. The first pressure comes from land subsidence, which is said to reach 1 cm to 20 cm per year in various coastal areas of Java. “This can be called twin pressure, double pressure, with rising sea levels,” explained AHY during the event. Head of the North Coast Java Management Authority (BOPPJ) and Deputy Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (Wamen KP) Didit H Ashaf revealed that the GSW will be built along approximately 575 kilometres on Java’s North Coast. “This length is not small or short,” said Didit during the same event. To accelerate the work, the project is divided into 15 segments so that construction can be carried out in parallel. According to Didit, the segment division means that the work does not have to start sequentially from west to east. The government can directly intervene in areas considered the highest priority. “It could be segment three which is prioritised in Pekalongan or segment four at another point,” he said. In the forum, Didit also confirmed that the Public Works Minister’s proposal for Pekalongan to be a priority for giant sea wall construction has been accepted by the government. Currently, the Kendal, Semarang, and Demak areas are said to have detailed planning progress approaching 80 per cent. Didit said that construction interventions will be focused on areas with very gentle land slopes or slopes of 0 degrees to 2 degrees that are experiencing severe land subsidence.