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.