2005: A year of no clean air to breath

2005: A year of no clean air to breath Tb. Arie Rukmantara The Jakarta Post/Jakarta Indonesians in many parts of the country were still unable to enjoy clean air this year due to chronic pollution. Choking haze from the annual forest fires in Sumatra earlier this year covered most of the region's sky, including Malaysia's and Singapore's, for weeks before firemen from neighboring countries came to help put out the fires raging over thousands of hectares of forests in the western part of Indonesia. Sumatrans, Malaysians and Singaporeans had to put on masks to keep them from inhaling the smoky air. Schools were closed and flights were delayed as visibility only reached between 300 to 500 meters. Noted environmentalist and former environment minister Emil Salim called it the Asia brown haze and urged Asian countries to cooperate in tackling the environmental problems. Most environmentalists agreed that the blaze was caused by fires lighted by illegal loggers and land-clearing activities to open new plantations and urged the government to take a firm stand to punish the perpetrators. "It is not enough to say that the fires have been started by some Malaysian-owned companies (operating plantations in Sumatra). All of these fires are taking place within Indonesia's borders, it is therefore the Indonesian government's responsibility to put out the fires and eliminate the health and air traffic hazards caused by them," wrote a Singaporean, Paul E. Rantau, to The Jakarta Post.

The government responded by arresting several executives from logging companies, both local and foreign. The haze problem also highlights the rapid deforestation rate in the country, which according to some estimate stands at around 2.8 million hectares per year, due to widespread illegal logging activities.

The Center for Environment Management at the Office of the State Minister for the Environment reported that fires had burned forest areas in North Sumatra, Riau and Jambi provinces. The conflagration in Riau, which had over 500 hot spots, razed 25,000 hectares of forest this year.

As rains fell in the region, the haze disappeared for a while. Nevertheless, the government had not drawn up a concrete formula to tackle the problem, other than promising to cooperate with neighboring countries to battle the fires and haze. Even without the haze, Indonesians still have to deal with ongoing chronic air pollution caused by motorized vehicles.

A joint study carried out by the Office of the State Minister of the Environment and the Committee for Leaded Gasoline Phase-out (KPBB) revealed in late November that cars and motorcycles in three major cities in the country -- Palembang, Makasar and Medan -- were still using leaded gasoline, which poses a threat to people's health and can stunt mental development. The report of the monitoring showed that gasoline samples taken in Palembang contained 0.58 g/L of lead, Makassar (0.272 g/L) and Medan (0.213 gr/L), while the content of sulfur in diesel fuel sold in 10 major cities reached more than the acceptable maximum limit of 500 parts per million (ppm). "About 80 percent of countries in the world have been using unleaded fuel for years," said Ahmad Safrudin, KPBB coordinator. "This is humiliating." He warned that should state oil and gas company Pertamina fail to supply enough unleaded fuel across the country, the next generation would suffer not only health problems but would also experience stunted mental development. The study said that last year, people in major cities only enjoyed clean air for less than two months in a year, with Jakarta residents enjoying clean air for only 18 days. "The situation has not changed yet," Ahmad said. The government argued that it could not afford to produce about 15 kiloliters of free-leaded gasoline to supply some 40 million cars and motorcycles across the nation. According to the Office of the State Minister for the Environment's calculation, each liter of unleaded gasoline requires Rp 200 in extra costs, which is equal to about Rp 2 trillion every year. State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar, said he was ashamed that the country still used such a hazardous fuel, but added that the cash-strapped government had other urgent budget priorities. Challenging the government's argument, environmental activists said a World Bank study showed that the air pollution had cost Indonesians US$548 million in social and health losses from 1995 to 2000. Ahmad said, "A smart government would prefer to invest Rp 2 trillion a year rather than let its people suffer millions of dollars in losses." Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) executive director Chalid Muhammad said nothing was expensive when it came to ensuring the rights to a clean environment for the country's population. "The government has failed to protect, fulfill and respect the basic rights of the people -- the right to a healthy environment," Chalid said recently in conjunction with Human Rights Day. Responding to the criticism, Minister Rachmat pledged to punish those who harmed the country's environment by empowering its civil investigators to be able to investigate, arrest and sue companies that caused pollution. "I'll sue companies that have been blacklisted in our environmental audit and empower our civil investigators to cut short the legal procedures," he told the Post.

However, facts speaks differently. Recently the government decided not to appeal the South Jakarta District Court's verdict that overturned its lawsuit against mining firm PT Newmont Minahasa Raya, which allegedly had polluted Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, recommending that the case be settled out of court. Chalid urged the government to take into account the human rights perspective in adjudicating environmental crime. "In a human rights violation case, there's no such thing as a compromise," he said.