Clean air, blue skies -- just a dream?

Clean air, blue skies -- just a dream?

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hazardous vehicular emission has long been an irritating problem
for people traveling along the busy streets of the capital.

They realize the consequences of inhaling the toxic gas but
only a handful want to take an active part in the efforts to
clean up the air.

Many motorists do not care about the pollutants coming from
the exhaust of their vehicle that have long passed tolerable
levels.

Owners of public transportation vehicles, who are obliged to
take emission tests, prefer to bribe officials instead of
cleaning the engine or changing the necessary auto spare parts to
reduce the emission. Corrupt government officials willingly issue
roadworthy certificates without checking the emission of
vehicles.

Such practices are no secret.

"No matter how bad the emission of your car is, your car will
pass the roadworthy test as long as you are willing to pay more,"
said a man who offered his services to car owners at the Pulo
Gadung roadworthy testing office in East Jakarta.

Data at the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD)
showed that last year, 77.6 percent of public and commercial
vehicles in Jakarta did not pass the emission tests. The majority
of private cars also failed the tests. A total of 78.13 percent
of cars made in 1985, 67.32 percent of those made between 1986
and 1994, and 56.91 percent of those made in 1995 and after, did
not pass the tests.

Owing to the fact that some 70 percent of air pollutants in
the city are due to exhaust emission, reducing vehicular emission
has become the focus of attention of environmentalists and those
who care about the issue.

In 1992 the city administration launched the clean air program
(prokasih), followed by the blue sky program launched by the
Office of the State Minister for the Environment.

The only significant achievement of the clean air program was
in July 2001 when all fuel pumps in the Greater Jakarta started
to sell unleaded gasoline and to discontinue the sale of leaded
gasoline. It was the pilot project for the program to replace
leaded gasoline all over the country, which is hoped will take
place in 2004.

Lead can cause various health problems such as the lowering of
IQ in children, anemia, male reproductive problems and kidney
disease.

The air in Jakarta has a high level of dangerous substances
aside from lead (Pb), such as particulate molecular (PM) or dust
particles with a diameter measuring less than 10 micron, carbon
dioxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrous
dioxide (NO2).

Results of mobile monitoring stations in Jakarta between 1999
and 2001, show that the PM level, for example, was still at 88.8
micrograms per cubic meter, higher than the tolerable level of 60
micrograms per cubic meter.

Health experts have warned that HC and NO2 can cause lung
cancer and respiratory infections; CO and NO2 can cause heart
problems; while PM can cause cancer, bronchitis and respiratory
problems.

The intolerable level of vehicular emission, according to
Moestikahadi Soedomo, an air pollution expert from Bandung
Institute of Technology (ITB), is worsened by the chaotic
transportation system in the city.

Soedono said in his book Air Pollution that during traffic
jams vehicles produced more dangerous emission.

Rully Besari Budiyanti, an urban landscape expert from
Trisakti University in Jakarta, added that air pollution had
worsened due to the inadequate green space which functioned to
absorb air pollutants.

Green space in the city, according to the Indonesian Forum for
the Environment (Walhi), is less than 9 percent of the total land
area in Jakarta, far from the ideal figure of around 30 percent.

In an effort to curb air pollution, the Jakarta Environmental
Management Agency has proposed that Gubernatorial Decree No.
1041/2000 which obliges all private vehicles to take an emission
test should take effect in August.

Restiti, a program officer of Swisscontact's clean air
project, welcomed the plan but stressed the need of an applicable
mechanism for it to be effective.

Many, however, were pessimist about the plan.

"It is good news for the environment as well as for human
health, but I don't think that the plan can be implemented
August," Helmy Sungkar, an automotive observer, told the Post
recently.

He expressed concern that the new policy could even become a
source of corruption for the city officials who would ask for
bribes from owners of polluting vehicles.

Chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) Indah
Suksmaningsih said it was impossible to reduce hazardous gas in
the capital without addressing the problem of corruption in the
related city agencies.

"Clearing the air in Jakarta is as difficult as clearing the
bureaucracy in the city," she said.

To avoid the practice of corruption Restiti suggested that the
emission tests for private cars be monitored by a committee
consisting of representatives from the academia, governmental and
non-governmental organizations.

"I myself am not so optimistic as there is no guarantee that
the program will be successful. But there is also no reason to
claim that the program will fail. We should try all possibilities
as the problem of air pollution and its consequences are still
there," she added.