Ambitious clean air bylaw lacks support provisions

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The New Year's resolution by the Jakarta administration is to make the city breathable, but that could be too ambitious even with the issuance of Bylaw No. 2/2005 on air pollution control, which will go into effect in February.

Except for Gubernatorial Regulation No. 75/2005 supporting the bylaw's smoking ban, no other regulation has been issued to support other aspects of the bylaw, such as the use of natural gas in all public transportation and government vehicles, as well as the control of vehicular emissions.

"We have completed a draft regulation for the use of natural gas in public transportation, however we lack support from the City Council," Head of the Jakarta Environment Management Agency (BPLHD) Kosasih Wirahadikusumah said on Wednesday.

Looking at past experiences in trying to encourage the use natural gas, Kosasih cited the implementation of a Gubernatorial Instruction in 1992 effectively requiring taxi companies to use the alternative fuel in at least 20 percent of the cars in their fleet.

"It worked well at the time because the price difference between natural gas and gasoline was quite high. But as time went on, this difference lessened until the price of the two fuels became relatively similar," he said, explaining that without the price edge, natural gas became too ineffective for taxi companies.

At present there are only about 500 government-owned vehicles using natural gas, Kosasih -- who was a guest speaker at a press conference on Jakarta's air quality organized by the Forum for Cleaner Emission Partnership (MEB) on Wednesday -- added.

To date, only four of the 18 of the original natural gas fuel stations are still operational. These is one on Jl. Sumenep in Menteng, Central Jakarta; another in the Semanggi area of Central Jakarta; another in Tebet, South Jakarta; and on Jl. D.I. Panjaitan in Cawang, East Jakarta.

Kosasih said that it was only after the fuel price hikes on Oct. 1 that natural gas became feasible again.

"But after ignoring their gas conversion kits for more than a decade, reusing them without first servicing the kits can have disastrous results," he said, citing the explosion of a Kosti Taxi on Dec 12.

This incident, has in turn heightened the public's concern over the safety of using such fuel in vehicles.

"Without an intelligible explanation, there will always be public resistance towards the use of natural gas, particularly the safety aspects," MEB program manager Firdaus Cahyadi said during the press conference.

Also during the press conference, MEB researcher Joko Sulistyono highlighted the government's dominance over the country's fuel industry, which unfortunately still looks down on natural gas production for fuel.

Kosasih, however, was optimistic that with the Jakarta administration's commitment to using natural gas in buses on the new busway lines, more demand would follow and with it the industry. After that, it was a matter of time before all other public transportation companies followed suit.

"The new bylaw will possibly be implemented to force public transportation companies to install natural gas devices for all their fleets when they renew their operating licenses," he said.

Meanwhile, experts say the easiest part to implement on Bylaw No. 2, is the requirement to regularly inspect and maintain private cars and motorcycles so that they adhere to the recommended emission standards, but that too has its problems.

Kosasih said that to date there were only 80 certified car shops in the city able to carry out emission tests, while at least 200 would be needed. And only 239 out of 600 certified technicians were currently available.

"Furthermore, there are no specific emissions standards available for two-stroke engine motorcycles," he said.

Meanwhile, Firdaus said that the public -- familiar with the bribery that goes on with the road worthiness tests for public vehicles -- only view the new regulation to put private vehicles through regular inspections and maintenance as just another method of extortion.

"So unless the government repairs the road worthiness test for public vehicles, this image will remain in the public's mind and they will, of course, resist," he said.