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Samboja
District
Samboja Reservoir
OpenStreetMap
SambojaLocationShow map of KalimantanSambojaSamboja (Indonesia)Show map of Indonesia
Coordinates: 0°39′50.86451″S 117°13′48.23292″E / 0.6641290306°S 117.2300647000°E / -0.6641290306; 117.2300647000
Country	Indonesia
Province	East Kalimantan
Regency	Kutai Kartanegara
District seat	Kampung Lama
Government
• District head (Camat)	Damsik
Area
• Total	284.93 km (110.01 sq mi)
Population
• Total	12,346
• Density	43/km (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (ICT)
Villages	13

Samboja (Indonesian pronunciation: [samˈbodʒa]) is a district in Kutai Kartanegara Regency, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. As of 2023, it was inhabited by 12,346 people, and currently has the total area of 284.93 km. Its district seat is located at the village of Kampung Lama.

History

The small town of Samboja was founded about a century ago in what was then rainforest when oil was discovered in the area. The first drilling began in 1897 near Balikpapan Bay. Dutch oil workers moved into the area to work for a company that was later taken over by Royal Dutch Shell and later still by the national Indonesian oil company Pertamina. The oil company began cutting wood in the 1950s and as people came flooding into the booming oil town of Balikpapan they cleared the surrounding forest. With the pronounced El Niño of 1982 and 1983 there were fires in the area, destroying the pockets of forest that remained.

According to Smits' 2009 TED talk, Samboja in 2002 was the poorest district of East Kalimantan, with 50% of the population unemployed and a high crime rate. Almost a quarter of average income went on buying drinking water. The land was covered with alang-alang grass (Imperata cylindrica), putting it at high risk for repeated forest and land fires. There were many nutrition and hygiene related health problems and life expectancy was low, with high infant and maternal mortality.

In 2019, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced the relocation of Indonesia's capital from Jakarta to a yet to be developed city in East Kalimantan, which will span portions of Samboja. The initial plan proposed construction of the capital city start in 2021, but was postponed due to shifting government priorities mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

On 19 October 2020, the western parts of Samboja (containing 10 villages) were separated to form the new district of West Samboja, with its seat located at Tani Bhakti.

Governance

Villages

Samboja is divided into the following 13 villages (the rest are urban kelurahan, rural desa are marked by grey background):

References

1. ^ "Kecamatan Samboja dalam Angka 2024". kukarkab.bps.go.id. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
2. "Inisiatif Camat Samboja dalam Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Warga". sonora.id. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
3. Intermediate Cities in the Resource Frontier: A case study of Samarinda and Balikpapan Ph.D dissertation by William Bruce Wood, University of Hawaii, 1985, p63
4. Schuster, Smits & Ullal 2008, pp. 300–301
5. "Willie Smits TED Talk challenged". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
6. hermesauto (2019-08-30). "Indonesian capital move could prompt new environmental crisis in Kalimantan". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
7. "Indonesia's new capital city project put on hold amid pandemic: Bappenas". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
8. "Perda Kab. Kutai Kartanegara No. 6 Tahun 2020". peraturan.bpk.go.id. Retrieved 2024-12-31.

Further reading

• Schuster, Gerd; Smits, Willie; Ullal, Jay (2008). Thinkers of the Jungle: The Orangutan Report. H.F.Ullmann. p. 320. ISBN 978-3-8331-4623-7.

• Districts of East Kalimantan
• Kutai Kartanegara Regency