`Govt has done its best to reduce air pollution'

JAKARTA (JP): An official called for greater public participation in fighting air pollution, saying that the government had already done its best in the campaign.

"The government has done everything possible to reduce air pollution in big cities such as Jakarta," Margana Koesoemadinata, director of air pollution control at the Environmental Impact Management Agency, told a seminar on pollution yesterday.

He dismissed criticism by participants that the government has yet to establish a proper approach and achieve workable solutions to the city's pollution problem. He cited the production of unleaded gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas as examples of the government's effort.

"The problem is, it's the public who's not interested in using unleaded gasoline," he said. "Therefore, the government has to work harder in raising public awareness of, and participation in, the campaign."

He charged that some publications have discredited the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) for its alleged detrimental impact on health and the danger of explosion.

Margana said the publications have contributed to people's apprehension of the use of CNG gas.

Yesterday's seminar also discussed how people spend more money to cure diseases brought about by air pollution than to conduct environmental programs.

Dody Susanto, the chairman of the Foundation of Natural Resources and Environment Development which held the seminar, quoted from official data that Indonesia annually spends US$425 million for pollution-related diseases, and 0.5 percent of the amount for environmental programs.

Trismawan, the director of Jakarta-based PT Blue Bird, the sole distributor of liquefied petroleum gas, told The Jakarta Post that 10 years after the gas was introduced as an alternative to gasoline, there are only 1,450 vehicles operating with the gas. Most of them are taxis, he added.

Poerwoto of the Agency for the Ecological Assessment of the Jakarta city administration lamented the lack of a legal base for the authorities to punish drivers and owners of vehicles whose emissions exceed the pollution limit.

He said his office is proposing a bill to the Ministry of Transportation to enforce a law which will enable police to revoke the operation permits of the offending public transport vehicles. (16)