Antipollution campaign starts at Hard Rock Cafe

JAKARTA (JP): Concerts dedicated to a campaign stressing the benefits of unleaded fuel began Monday night at the Hard Rock Cafe amid uncertainty as to when leaded fuel will be banned here.

The event is part of the campaign organized by the Segar Jakarta clean air project and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia Program.

Pop stars Rita Effendi, Titi Dwijayati, Braggi, Odio and Project Pop groups entertained fans for two hours to a backdrop of posters and slogans reading "Use Unleaded Gasoline" and "Clean Your Jakarta".

After the Hard Rock the concert campaign moves on to the Balemang Cafe, South Jakarta, Newscafe at Setiabudi Building I, South Jakarta, and Malioboro Cafe, Central Jakarta. Dates have not yet been fixed for these concerts.

The reason for basing the campaign around cafes is easily explained. "Most cafe-goers use cars," said Hugo Sager, deputy project leader of Swisscontact, a Swiss-based nonprofit organization supporting the campaign. "Cafe-goers also say they move around alot in cars."

Swisscontact is running Segar Jakarta with its local partner PT Qipra Galang Kartika. Isna Marifa, a Qipra executive and the head of the project's organizing committee, said the campaign started last November.

Scheduled to run until the end of the year, it will also include seminars, competitions, indoor and outdoor exhibitions, sporting events, and free vehicle emission tests.

The Segar Jakarta program follows a similar campaign run by the municipality called the Blue Sky program. Activities including free vehicle emission tests were supported by, among others, the Association of Indonesian Automotive Industries and state-run research firm PT Sucofindo.

Qipra business development manager Dollaris Ruauaty said that despite such efforts many people in Jakarta, a city home to three million motor vehicles, are yet to become aware of the environmental effects of leaded gasoline.

Hindering their widespread use is the fact that unleaded fuel and natural gas are not available at all gas stations. Unleaded fuel, under the brand Super TT, is sold at Rp 975 per liter, more expensive than leaded brands. For instance Premium is sold at Rp 700 per liter.

Indefinite

Health experts have said leaded gasoline, a main cause of lead poisoning, can cause regression of the intelligence quotient of children and serious illnesses like coronary heart disease and hypertension.

Former minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana stated in March last year that leaded fuel would be phased out and banned in 1999.

However, the program has been "postponed indefinitely... maybe to 2003 or 2004 due to the economic situation and other crucial factors," according to Isna.

Previously, officials of the state oil company Pertamina had told Swisscontact that leaded gasoline would be phased out by 2004 to allow time for the adjustment of refineries and other changes.

"In the (IMF-brokered reform) package, leaded gasoline phase- out is included in the last item but due to the economic situation, whether Pertamina... will have the funds to alter or build new refineries, is another question altogether," Isna said.

Dollaris said that since President Soeharto's statement to reduce the lead content in gasoline in 1996, Pertamina began reducing lead content from 1.5 cc per US gallon to 1.0 cc per US gallon.

"It should have been further reduced to 0.5 cc per US gallon this year or late last year," she said.

She said she was informed by Pertamina that it has had to import lead-free chemicals that could boost octane levels of fuel to replace lead, but the cost of "the chemicals has doubled or even tripled" since the crisis.

City figures show 70 percent of air pollution is caused by vehicle emissions, most of them from private vehicles, the majority of which are motorbikes.

As of 1995 there were 850,000 cars, 320,000 trucks, 310,000 buses and 1.5 million motorbikes in Jakarta.

Of motorbike owners, Hugo said, "People don't follow the rules of how to mix benzene and oil. A maximum of 2 percent is supposed to be in the fuel for two-stroke engines. Here, there is sometimes 5 or more than 5 percent. This ends up as hydrocarbons in the air."

According to a 1995 study published in the 1996 medical magazine Kedokteran Kerja Indonesia, lead content in the capital's air is up to 78.9 micrograms per cubic meter.

"If a child were to live even under one microgram in one cubic meter, it's enough to reduce his IQ by one point," Hugo said.

In the first three months of the city's free emission tests last year, only 54.3 percent of 10,880 vehicles examined passed.

Nearly a third of taxis which use the supposedly clean petroleum gas failed the test, which checked, among other things, emission levels of smoke, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and hydrocarbons.

Officials have said that because leaded gas is still widely sold here, the main message to drivers and car owners is to have their cars regularly maintained to maintain emission levels of the above pollutants at acceptable levels. (02)