Getting more polluted

Getting more polluted

When Director General for Land Transportation Iskandar
Abubakar launched the idea of having all private vehicles undergo
a roadworthiness test in 2003, he was met with strong resistance
from the public. There was widespread suspicion that the test
would be a ruse to extort money from motorists.

Tests for roadworthiness have been enforced for years but only
on commercial and public transport vehicles. However, the only
testing station in East Jakarta has become a den of bribery. Car
owners prefer to bribe the officials in charge to get a
certificate for their vehicles, which in fact should not be given
one due to their poor condition.

A road worthiness test, including an emission test, would be
an appropriate way to curb the already serious levels of air
pollution in Jakarta. And Abubakar seemed to have found the best
way to help keep Jakarta's air clean. The problem is that the
vehicle road worthiness test has become a profitable illegal
business for the officials in charge.

Tests for vehicles for commercial use is no doubt a total
failure, and the test for private cars planned by Abubakar has
been aborted. The obvious result is that there are run-down and
noisy vehicles, mostly city buses, emitting clouds of thick black
smoke from their exhaust pipes freely plying the city streets.

Jakarta, the third most polluted city in the world after
Bangkok and Mexico City, urgently needs to do something to curb
air pollution.

With at least 2.5 million private cars, 3.8 million
motorcycles and 255,000 public transportation vehicles traversing
the city streets every day (according to 2004 official records),
the capital needs a serious commitment from its citizens and its
administrator to clean up the city's air.

Official records showed in 2003 that the city had 1.2 million
private cars and 2.3 million motorcycles.

Moves and campaigns for clean air have been launched. The Blue
Sky program which encouraged motorists to use unleaded gasoline
had apparently failed, with no single institution claiming
responsible for the failure. With poor law enforcement,
violations of Law No. 14 on traffic and land transportation
continue, despite harsh punishment stipulated by the law.

Article 54 of the 13-year-old law says, states, among other
things, that anyone operating a vehicle that is not roadworthy is
subject to three months in jail or a maximum fine of Rp 3
million. The law, which drew controversy when deliberated by the
House of Representatives, also stipulates that those violating
the tolerable emission limits are subject to a two-month jail
sentence or a Rp 2 million fine. Surprisingly, there have been no
reports of motorists jailed or fined for those offenses, as
violations can be settled illegally on the street.

Though vehicles are not the only contributors to air pollution
in the capital, it is quite clear that the administrator's
seriousness in curbing air pollution is questionable.

The five air monitors now standing at separate points in
Jakarta display inaccurate, outdated data. A researcher of the
Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) has revealed that the air
pollution indexes displayed by the monitors are years out of
date, therefore they could not function as an early warning
instrument for the public. Maintenance is another serious matter.
This means that the exact level of air pollution in Jakarta is
thus unknown. If that is the case, how can air pollution be dealt
with properly?

The researcher also said that the city of 12 million people
needed at least 60 monitors, not five. It is not surprising then
that a South Korean professor who visited Jakarta at the end of
April said that Jakarta was more polluted now compared to when he
first visited the city five years ago. "The most noticeable
change I found was the level of (air) pollution in Jakarta. It
has become much worse," said the academician who has traveled
many big cities around the world.

Sharing his experience when he visited India, he said that New
Delhi, which is like Jakarta in terms of pollution and was badly
polluted several years ago, is now much cleaner. The New Delhi
administration now uses the European standard emission limit, and
in the future, they will improve on the standard, he said.

If the New Delhi administration can make their city cleaner,
why can't Jakarta?

We have to admit, whether we like it or not, that poor law
enforcement is the main contributor to the failure of efforts to
reduce air pollution. And, we are all aware that poor law
enforcement is a reflection of poor leadership within the
administration.

Therefore, the administrator should be held responsibility for
the failure. The promulgation of a bylaw on air pollution control
on Feb. 4, 2005 and political rhetoric are meaningless, unless
law enforcement, including actions against fraudulent officials,
is toughened.