No cool change in sight for Jakarta, warn experts

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Jakarta is likely to continue experiencing scorching heat unless the city administration and residents get their act together to reduce air pollution and increase the number of green areas in the metropolis, environmentalists say.

"We are facing a serious problem, but we can still resolve it if there are serious efforts from all sides. For that, we need a leader who has a strong commitment to addressing the problem," said secretary-general of the Clean Emissions Partnership (MEB), Ahmad Safrudin, on Sunday.

Ahmad said the city's temperature -- which rises to 34 degrees Celsius in the day time -- is higher than the room temperature in tropical regions of around 26 degrees Celsius.

According to Ahmad, the searing temperatures were caused by various factors, including a high level of air pollution and a lack of green areas.

Environmentalists believe that transportation contributes up to 70 percent of air pollutants in urban areas, including Jakarta.

Ahmad urged the city administration to continue the efforts to clean up the city's air by improving public transportation and encouraging motorists to use natural gas.

A lack of green spaces in the city is another serious problem that sparks rising temperatures. The existing green areas in Jakarta only cover around 7 percent of the city's area of some 650 square kilometers, far below the ideal of 30 percent.

"We still hope the city will be able to reach 13.94 percent by 2010. Unfortunately, in the last five years, the area of green spaces has actually decreased from 9 percent to only around 7 percent," he said.

Marco Kusumawijaya, an architect and urban planer, shared Ahmad's views, adding that the increasing temperatures in Jakarta were in line with the growing number of high-rise buildings equipped with air-conditioners.

"If we lower the temperatures in some rooms, this means we will increase air temperatures outside the rooms. Therefore, the more air-conditioned buildings that are constructed, the hotter the air outside the buildings will be," he explained.

According to Ahmad, many Jakarta residents set the temperature of their air conditioners at 18 degrees Celsius although 25 degrees Celsius would be quite comfortable.

"Ironically, after setting the temperature at 18 degrees Celsius, they then cover themselves with blankets while sleeping," he added.

Marco said there were two ways to make a building cooler -- through the active approach and the passive approach. The active approach included equipping a building with air-conditioners.

Meanwhile, the passive approach included creating good air circulation in the building and planting trees outside. "But most people prefer to use the active approach by equipping their buildings with air-conditioners," said Marco.

Marco stressed that increasing the extent of green spaces in the city and encouraging people to use public transportation and leave their cars at home would be the most effective ways of cooling down Jakarta.

"But I do not see any signs that the city administration is serious about addressing the city's soaring temperatures. The latest example is the so-called Menteng Park, which is going to have a parking lot for at least 200 vehicles. This is clearly not in line with the city's ostensible efforts to encourage people to use public transportation," he added.