Crisis forces city to 'sacrifice' its environmental programs

Crisis forces city to 'sacrifice' its environmental programs

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): More pollution. That's the first thing that
comes to mind after learning that the city plans to suspend its
environmental programs due to its limited budget.

The city used to have a regreening program, a Blue Sky program
-- which addressed air pollution -- and a clean river program.

Without these programs, Jakarta's sky could take on a grayer
tinge than even before, while its small number of green areas may
do little to help. Rivers will fill with garbage, causing floods
to most parts of the city when it rains.

The decision to suspend the programs came as a big surprise to
many environmentalists because it was made exactly two weeks
after the celebration of World Environment Day on June 5.

Blame it on the limited budget.

The administration's 1998/1999 fiscal year budget has already
suffered from the chopping block twice. Initially, the city's
budget tallied in at Rp 3.2 trillion (US$216.9 million), but was
cut to Rp 2.7 trillion and later to Rp 1.4 trillion as a result
of the crisis.

Governor Sutiyoso said the current revised budget would be
used to help needy Jakartans at the grassroots level. Although he
indicated he would only suspend the three environment programs,
he would not mention how long they would be held off.

The city's original Rp 3.2 trillion budget allocated Rp 25.5
billion to the environmental sector. Now, the city's
environmental department doesn't even have an idea how much makes
up its share of the current city budget.

Emmy Hafild, chairwoman of the Indonesian Forum for
Environment (Walhi), said the city's decision to put off the
environmental programs was a "setback" to the efforts to improve
the city's environment.

"The environment is being sacrificed," she said.

She warned that more funds would be needed to address the
impacts of the environmental damages.

She also questioned the government's spending priorities in
the budget.

The administration, for example, had installed decorative
lights and other outdoor displays along certain main streets to
commemorate the city's 471st anniversary on June 22, she said.

The city will also hold the annual Jakarta Fair, scheduled to
begin Saturday and run until Aug. 2, she added.

"Such fancy activities are a waste of money and are
unnecessary, but they're going on. The city should set its
priorities straight. Protecting the environment is vital,
especially because people's health is at stake," Emmy said.

She conceded that the city's celebration was far less
glamorous compared to previous years, but found it surprising
that the city was able to set aside Rp 350 million out of its
budget for this year's commemoration.

The city has also collected Rp 815 million from 55 city-owned
firms for outdoor displays.

The amount collected would be split almost evenly between the
celebration of the city's anniversary and the country's
Independence Day celebrations in August.

The Jakarta International Trade Fair Corporation, the
organizer of this year's Jakarta Fair, has also set aside about
Rp 3 billion for this year's festival -- less than half of last
year's budget for the same event.

The corporation is 15 percent owned by the administration.

Emmy said she could not understand why these celebrations were
to go on while environmental programs were being halted.

"Jakarta's environmental programs are too important to be
stopped, even only temporarily," Emmy said.

She cited a 1996 World Health Organization report that said
that stomach problems from unclean water was the number one
killer of children under five years old, while the second killer
was respiratory diseases caused by bad air quality.

"The administration should be the first to promote the need to
protect the environment and improve its quality," Emmy said.

Concern

She raised concerns that pollution would get worse if the city
was not committed to protecting the environment.

She has a point. It is the government which issues warnings or
punishes polluters. The government is also responsible for
designating certain areas into green areas.

And under the clean river program, or Prokasih, launched in
1989, the city was in charge of monitoring the cleanliness of
five of its 13 rivers, both physically and chemically. The city
also had to monitor whether nearby industries, hospitals and
hotels polluted the rivers.

The Blue Sky program, started in 1996, aims to improve air
quality in big cities, including Jakarta, which ranked third for
the most polluted cities in the world after Mexico and Bangkok,
according to United Nations 1996 statistics.

Two major sources of pollution identified by the program are
motor vehicles and industrial plants. The city carried out
vehicle emission tests under Blue Sky to fight air pollution.

The regreening project is also deemed by many as vital for the
improvement of air quality here. Earlier, the administration had
planned to turn 30 percent of the city's 65,000 hectares into
green areas, much like the area around the National Monument
(Monas) in Central Jakarta. Only 15 percent of the city's area
has been set aside for green areas.

The three programs, however, are often criticized for being
short on action and for only carrying out limited measures. They
are also seen to be dependent on public participation.

Still, there has been some progress.

More people seem to realize the health dangers of vehicle
emissions and have started switching to environment-friendly
fuels, such as compressed natural gas or unleaded gasoline. More
industries, hotels and hospitals are now treating their waste
before dumping them into rivers.

There was a 10 percent increase on the number of vehicles
passing the emission tests, from 33 percent in 1996 to 44 percent
last year.

"I don't know about the condition of rivers chemically, but I
see that the garbage is not as much as it used to be," Emmy said.

The head of the city's environmental bureau, Aboejoewono
Aboeprajitno, urged people not to misunderstand the decision,
saying the administration had not completely scrapped the
programs.

"It was not an easy choice, but we no longer have the budget
to finance environmental programs."

The administration, he said, was still willing to facilitate
NGOs or private sectors in organizing environmental campaigns.

For instance, he said, the city morally supported five-day
emission tests last month held by Segar Jakartaku, an
environmental organization.

Over previous years, the tests were jointly financed by the
administration and a private company and were conducted for a
seven-day period in various areas. But last month's test was only
conducted at the National Monument area. The result was not yet
available.