City drags its feet on air pollution bylaw

City drags its feet on 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.