Morning exercise a dangerous activity in Kebayoran Baru
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Compared to other areas in the capital, Kebayoran Baru district in South Jakarta is relatively green. It is thus no surprise that, for the sake of their health, residents like to exercise outdoors in the mornings.
Secretary-general of the Partnership Forum for Clean Emission (MEB) Ahmad Safrudin, however, warned on Tuesday that Kebayoran Baru's air was among the most polluted in the capital.
Ahmad said that air pollution in the area was not only due to traffic congestion but to cumulative pollutants being blown by the wind from the northern part of the city.
"We have no data on the concentration of air pollutants in the area, but satellite photographs owned by the State Ministry of the Environment show that the pollution is very bad there," he said.
"I would say that exercising outdoors is not healthy for residents of Kebayoran Baru district, particularly in the surrounding areas of Blok M," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said cumulative pollutants consisting of minute separate particles with a diameter of less than 10 micron (PM10) gathered above Kebayoran Baru, settling in the residential area in the mornings.
The PM 10, which consists of various hazardous substances, is particularly dangerous as it can enter the lungs during the respiratory process.
He said the Office of the State Minister of the Environment had declined to announce the condition in Kebayoran Baru. "Maybe because the office has not come up with a solution," he added.
Ahmad said the two other most polluted areas in Jakarta were Pluit in North Jakarta and Pulogadung in East Jakarta.
He said that air pollution in Pluit was sparked by two sources -- vehicular emission due to traffic jams in the area and the burning of diesel fuels at a Geothermal power plant.
He said air pollution in Pulogadung was mainly sparked by vehicular emission due to traffic jams close to the bus terminal and emission from various industries in the Pulogadung industrial zone.
Ahmad said the level of PM10 in the two areas had reached 350 micron per cubic meter -- double the tolerable level of 150 micron per cubic meter. Other hazardous substances include nitrogen oxide (NOx) sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3).
According to Ahmad, air pollution standard indexes issued by the City Environment Management Board (BPLHD) do not indicate air pollutants inhaled by city residents.
He said that the air pollution indexes only functioned as data referenced by the city administration for policymaking on air pollution control.
Ahmad's statement was confirmed by the head of the BPLHD's air pollution monitoring division, Yusiono Anwar Supalal, who said that the indexes showed on a daily basis the average quality of ambient air at five locations in the city within the previous 24 hours.
"Of course the concentration of air pollution on roadsides and in industrial areas is higher than what is stated in the standard indexes," Yusiono told the Post.
Researcher Driejana of ITB's Air Quality Laboratory said recently that the capital, populated by around 12 million people, had only five air monitors, a far cry from the ideal of one monitor per 200,000 people.
Yusiono, however, claimed that the air pollution indexes -- which are derived from the observations of the five air monitors -- were valid as it had already met the technical requirements to measure air pollution indexes.