Jakarta's air pollution is alarming

Jakarta's air pollution is alarming

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): No matter how good your car is, there is nothing
you can do when it comes to traffic congestion. You have to stop
and wait until the vehicles in front of you move forward.

Traffic jams occur chronically in the city during rush hours.
Being caught in a traffic jam results in more than a waste of
time, energy and money. Vehicular emission pollutes the
environment, affecting the health of humans, as well as other
living beings.

There are more than 2.5 million motorized vehicles in the 650-
square-kilometer area called Jakarta, the home of 10 million
people. The number of vehicles increases by 14 percent a year
compared to the four-percent increase of the length of the roads.
Apparently, this is the main cause of the traffic congestions.

The longer the traffic jams last, the worse the pollution is.

"Vehicular emission is the biggest contributor of air
pollution in urban areas," Margana Koesoemadinata, director of
air pollution control of the Environmental Impact Management
Agency, said.

The Urban and Environmental Research Office, which
continuously monitors 10 areas in Jakarta, finds that air
pollution in locations with heavy traffic is alarming.

"There is a tendency for air pollution in the city to worsen,"
the head of the office's laboratory, Rafdjon Rax, said.

"The pollution in some areas of the city has not reached
alarming levels, but in the other parts, it is terrible," he
added.

The roadside monitoring stations, which are installed on Jl.
Bandengan, Jl. MH Thamrin, Pasar Baru, Pasar Senen and the Pulo
Gadung areas, show that the levels of nitrogen oxide have passed
the tolerable standard of 0.05 parts per million (see graphics).

The dust elements have also exceeded the limit of 260 micro
grams per cubic meter (see graphics).

From April 1994 to March 1995, the highest level of dust
elements was found in Bandengan, West Jakarta. The level there
was 93 percent higher than the tolerable limit. The lowest level,
which was 27 percent above the tolerable limit, was found on Jl.
Thamrin, which has the best road structure.

Unlike the roadside monitoring stations, the ambient
monitoring stations show that the average levels of nitrogen
oxide and dust elements are still below the tolerable limits.

"But there are times when the levels of dust elements passes
the limit, except in Pondok Gede (East Jakarta)," Rafdjon said.

The ambient monitoring stations are installed the in Pulo
Gadung, East Jakarta; Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta; Tebet, South
Jakarta; Pondok Gede, East Jakarta, and Radio Dalam, South
Jakarta, areas.

The Urban and Environmental Research Office has also found
that the level of lead in the air in most part of the city has
also exceeded the annual international standard of 1 microgram
per cubic meter (see graphics).

Unleaded fuel

"An unleaded gasoline program is important to reduce the lead
element in the air," Rafdjon pointed out.

Unleaded fuel is an international standard fuel which contains
less than 0.013 grams of lead per liter.

Many countries, especially developed ones, use unleaded fuel.
This is not the case in Indonesia.

Indonesia is planning to produce low lead carbonate level
gasoline under its Exor I brand, with a lead content of between
0.2 gram to 0.3 gram per liter.

Before 1990 the lead content in the gasoline and fuel which
was sold in Indonesia was between 0.7 gram and 0.84 gram per
liter. Up to last year, the government had been able to decrease
the lead content to 0.44 gram per liter.

Lead can affect the development of children's brains and
nervous systems. The World Bank stated in its 1993 development
report that elevated lead levels in children can result in poor
IQ rankings, poor school performance and behavioral difficulties.

About 1.3 billion urban residents worldwide are exposed to air
pollution levels above the recommended limits, according to the
report.

A study by New York University shows that air pollution may be
responsible for 50,000 deaths annually in the United States or
more than 2 percent of all deaths nationwide. Results of the
study were presented last month.

Indonesia has long realized the danger of air pollution. In
1991, Emil Salim, who was state minister of environment and
population at the time, proposed the ambitious Blue Sky Program
to curb air pollution. Under this scheme, all vehicles were to
regularly undergo a smog check using plain white paper, which was
supposed to be put near the muffler. A vehicle was regarded to be
polluting the air if the paper became black seconds after the
engine was started.

The proposed smog check, however, did not work.

In 1992 the government introduced a new traffic law which
rules that anyone violating the emission limit can face a maximum
two-month jail term or a Rp 2 million fine. But this has not been
enforced. In response to strong public protests over the stiff
penalties stipulated in the law, the government decided to
implement it by stages.

Jakarta, one of the most polluted cities in the country,
issued Decree No. 1236 in 1990 on the need for smog checks.

"The decree stipulates that all vehicles, including privately
owned cars, should comply with the regulation by the year of
1995," Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for
Environmental Law Mas Achmad Santosa said.

Many vehicles, however, continuously pollute the air with the
thick black smokes discharged from their mufflers.

He observed that the authorities are dragging their feet in
the implementation of the regulation mainly due to the poor
coordination among the government agencies involved. The lack of
equipment to carry out the emission test also has hampered the
implementation of the decree, he added.

Jakarta has two vehicle testing stations, which only test
about 273,000 vehicles annually, while there are about 500,000
commercial vehicles which must be tested, according to city
councilor Bandjar Marpaung.

Two private companies are scheduled to open two new vehicle
testing centers in the city in the near future.

Careful

Head of the municipal office of the Urban and Environmental
Research Office H.M. Ali Rozi said the city administration was
very careful in the enforcement of the smog check regulation.

"Even if we detect motorists with cars that are polluting the
air, then what's next? Will people be able to afford the
maintenance? How about the auto workshops? Do they have adequate
equipment to reduce the pollution?" Rozi asked.

He said the government is drafting the necessary regulations
for the implementation of the smog check decree, which also
involves the private sector.

"We hope that by next year we will have regulations which
synchronize with the national-level ones."

"Well, this is a long-term goal," he added.

Rozi, as well as Margana, said that various aspects must be
taken into consideration before the government can enforce the
emission test regulation.

"This has much to do with socio-economic aspects. We can't
just arrest polluting motorists and punish them," Margana said.

Reducing the emissions would cost a lot and not all people
would be able to afford it, he said. Therefore, even though the
government is aware that almost all old vehicles pollute, they
cannot just be phased out.

"We will concentrate on new cars," he said.

Cars sold in Indonesia discharge more emission compared to the
ones sold in developed countries, even though they are produced
by the same manufacturers. The reason why Indonesia buys such
cars is because they are cheaper, according to both Margana and
Rozi.

It is clear that reducing air pollution is easy, but at the
same time also costly. Considering the danger of pollution, all
necessary efforts should be taken to curb it.