Breathing fresh air is difficult sometimes in Bali

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar

Bali is celebrated for its natural beauty, yet, in recent years, a high number of people here have been treated for respiratory problems, which are reportedly caused by increasing air pollution on the island.

Pollution watchdog the Foundation of Focus on Bali in a report based on medical records from Sanglah public hospital here, said that air pollution in Bali, particularly in Denpasar, needed to be seriously addressed.

Foundation director Yuyun Ismawati, told a seminar here that the number of patients that suffered respiratory problems as a result of air pollution stood at around 6,000 a year from 2001 to 2003.

In 2001, 6,364 people with respiratory problems were treated at the hospital. Manager of the hospital's medical records I Nengah Semadi, said patients attended the hospital two or three times on average for treatment.

"Of that number, 129 patients were hospitalized," she said.

The following year, new cases of respiratory problems rose to 7,549, with 104 patients needing to stay in hospital.

The number of new patients with respiratory problems dropped slightly to 6,446 in 2003, with 108 patients admitted.

Yuyun said motorized vehicles and garbage incineration were mostly to blame for air pollution, but vehicles were the greatest contributor.

She further said that the number of vehicles on the streets should be regulated.

Data at the Bali Police's vehicle registration office shows that there are 1,158,057 motorized vehicles on the island.

"About 628,929 of those are registered in Denpasar," the Bali Police's director of traffic Snr. Com. Soenardi said.

According to Agus Saefudin, head of emission standard evaluation at the Ministry of the Environment, a vehicle, whether it is a sedan, a truck or a bus, emits a total of 7.2 tons of carbon monoxide and 0.88 tons of hydro carbon a year.

"That is based on the standard calculation, in accordance with the limit set by the government, and provided the vehicle is well maintained," Agus said.

It is estimated that 1.25 million tons of carbon monoxide is emitted yearly by vehicles on Denpasar's roads.

The air is also polluted by 553 thousand tons of hydro carbon released yearly.

"Compared with (the condition of vehicles in) Greater Jakarta, where random emission tests were conducted last year, the condition of vehicles in Bali or Denpasar is not much different," Agus said.

Yuyun warned that the increasing number of vehicles from year to year was also becoming a serious problem.

In fact, she said, it has already posed an imminent threat to the health of 561,800 residents of Denpasar.

Yuyun said, however, the fact that Bali is an island stands in its favor, as coastal winds blow away much of the pollution. She said in other areas, such as Bandung in West Java, which is located in a basin, pollution levels could be higher.

"But I'm not saying that for sure as we would need to conduct research to prove it," Yuyun said.

What is certain, she said, is that clean air could become something that people used to associate with Bali, a distant, albeit fond, memory.