City drags its feet in air pollution bylaw

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After an initial high-spirited campaign to create a cleaner air in the capital, the city appears to be dragging its feet preparing the regulations needed to implement the bylaw on air pollution.

More than seven months after the City Council endorsed the bylaw in early February, the Jakarta administration has so far issued only one of more than 20 gubernatorial decrees to implement it.

Sources in the City Environment Management Body (Bapedal) said the sluggish process was due to budgetary constraints and the disinterest of officials.

Bodies involved in preparing the regulations have include the city health, transportation and industry agencies, the city legal and economics bureaus and the City Environment Management Body (BPLHD).

Head of the City Clean Air Campaign Yusiono Anwar Supalal said the administration was preparing four more gubernatorial regulations -- standards for indoor and outdoor air pollution, the use of natural gas for public transportation vehicles, vehicular emission tests and pollution recovery.

The council endorsed in February bylaw No. 2/2005 on air pollution control, which bans smoking in enclosed public places, requires motorists to undergo vehicle emission tests and obliges buses minivans and other forms of public transport to use natural gas.

The bylaw, which environmental campaigners hailed as a breakthrough, supposedly goes into effect in January 2006. For that purpose, however, the city administration will have to issue over 20 regulations.

With the city administration dragging its feet, doubts have surfaced if it was ready or had the political will to implement the bylaw.

Experts have focused particular criticism on the administration for its slow pace developing natural gas networks for public transportation. The existing gas networks cover less than 30 percent of the city.

"I am disappointed. The administration is not serious in carrying out the preparatory work needed for the enforcement of the bylaw. Its drafting involved many people in this society," council Commission D for development affairs deputy chairman Muhayar Rustamudin said on Saturday.

Muhayar, who was a key figure in the bylaw's deliberation, said a lack of commitment on the part of the administration also reflected in the small budgets allocated for bylaw enforcement programs.

"I heard from a BPLHD official that the City Planning Agency (Bapeda) has only approved Rp 100 million (US$9,800) from a total of some Rp 10 billion proposed by BPLHD (for the implementation of the clear air scheme in this year's city budget). This is very regrettable because there were high hopes about our efforts to clean up the city's air," he said.

The budget revision is currently being discussed by city officials and councillors.

This insignificant amount would mean clean air in the city would become a pipe dream, he said.

Health experts say that the acute air pollution in the city leads to many health problems, including heart attacks, respiratory diseases, cancers and eye infections.