Antipollution campaign starts at Hard Rock Cafe

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)