Leave cars at home on Earth Day: Official
JAKARTA (JP): In search of some fresh air, owners of private cars and motorcycles across the country are requested to leave their vehicles at home for 12 hours on April 23.
The gesture to refrain from driving private vehicles from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. is in conjunction with Earth Day, which falls on April 22.
State Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf said at a press conference on Thursday that the date for the private vehicle-free day was set for Monday because Earth Day is Sunday.
"We realize that one or two days of (this kind of) effort won't be enough to solve our very polluted earth, but at least we can show our personal responsibility (toward it)," Sonny said.
He said earlier there was no sanction for those who did not want to participate in the collective action.
Head of Jakarta's Environmental Impact Management Agency Aboe Joewono told reporters that private cars and motorbikes were chosen because they contributed more to air pollution compared to public transportation due to their larger numbers.
He said vehicles, mostly privately owned, contributed 60 percent of the air pollution in the country.
Data from the Directorate of Land Transportation at the Ministry of Communications stated that 86 percent of motorized vehicles in Jakarta are privately owned while there were 488,500 public transportation vehicles.
Sonny said there would be an air quality check before and after the date to see if the program had made a difference to current conditions.
An assistant at his office, Aca Sugandhy, said that the activity was not new in Indonesia. He was referring to the Balinese' Hindu Day of Silence where people refrain from daily activities.
Other plans for Earth Day in the country include a campaign to substitute the ozone depleting CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon) with safer substances such as hydrocarbons (HC) and a campaign to end the use of leaded gasoline.
Earth Day was first held in 1970 in the United States under the initiative of U.S. senator Gaylord Nelson. (08)