City kite festival packs an environmental punch

JAKARTA (JP): A two-day kite festival promoting public awareness on the importance of zero emissions from the city's vehicles will begin today at the National Monument (Monas) square.

At least 80 participants from the Netherlands, Malaysia and 12 provinces in Indonesia will take part in the event called Bentang Layangan Segar! Jakartaku (Fly a Kite My Clear Jakarta) to be opened by Governor Sutiyoso today at 2 p.m.

More than 400 children from eight orphanages in the capital have been invited to participate in the making and painting of the festival's kites.

An organizer, Sari Madjid, said yesterday the event was aimed at improving people's understanding on the value of a clean environment.

"Flying kites will make them look up at the sky and see what kind of sky we have here. Is it clear? If it isn't, then what should we do about it," she said.

Hugo Sager from the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, which promoted and funded the event, said Jakartans still needed to improve their awareness and efforts in developing a clean environment.

"There's a lot of things that need to be done to create a better and cleaner environment here. Jakarta was ranked as the third most polluted city in the world in 1994," he said.

Possible

He said people could start improving their environment by reducing their vehicles' emission levels as close to zero as possible.

"It's important to keep the emission level as low as we can to help make the vehicle more economical in gasoline intake," Hugo said.

People should have their vehicles undergo emissions tests, he said.

"The test is cheap. It's about Rp 5,000 and is often offered free of charge at some places. And it only takes about five to 10 minutes," he added.

The test helps identify vehicle parts which need to be replaced or fixed to make it run better, he said. People are recommended to test their vehicles once every six months or after every 10,000 kilometers to 15,000 kilometers of usage, he added.

A free emissions test will be available for visitors to the event at the festival site.

Hugo said people could also promote the clear sky campaign by not using leaded gasoline because vehicles running on it emitted lead.

"It would be better to use natural gas instead of gasoline though. But it is more difficult to convert from gasoline to gas, especially with the crisis since the conversion costs a fair amount of money," he said without elaborating. (cst)