On clean environment<\/p>\n
I refer to your front page article on June 7 titled Susilo
\nwants public to shame dirty cities. It is encouraging to see
\nPresident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono take up such issues and to
\npress for better education as that's an important part of the
\nlong term solution. Hopefully it is not a one-off because it
\nhappens to be World Environment Day.<\/p>\n
There's one major pollution factor however that Susilo has
\nmissed. Apart from the pollution that is visible, he also needs
\nto talk about the issue of air pollution. This is an issue that
\ncannot be solved by education and people's actions alone. This
\nrequires action by the government to reduce the amount of traffic
\non the roads and to reduce journey times.<\/p>\n
Building new toll roads only solves part of the problem and
\nadditionally it is counterproductive as it encourages more people
\nto travel by car.<\/p>\n
The underlying issue here is that Jakarta lacks an extensive
\npublic transport system. OK, so the busway is a start and also
\nthe planned monorail which is already under construction. But
\nthis is moving too slowly and I doubt if this is enough to stem
\nthe growth in volume of traffic and average journey times.<\/p>\n
What is at stake here is the damage to the environment, the
\neffect on people's health of being caught up for so long in the
\npollution, and the economic effect on people's productivity due
\nto wasting so much time.<\/p>\n
Had the prize for cleanest mayoralty also included air quality
\nas one of the criteria, I wonder if Central Jakarta would still
\nhave won.<\/p>\n
CIARAN HARRON, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/on-clean-environment-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }