'No easy solution to air pollution'

JAKARTA (JP): A researcher suggested yesterday that the government take a holistic, rather than a technical, approach to reducing air pollution, before worrying about using unleaded or leaded fuel.

Kardono, a researcher at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), said there was no easy solution to air pollution. Unleaded fuel was not necessarily a better way to reduce pollution, he said at a seminar in Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta.

"This, however, doesn't mean that its usage shouldn't be promoted," he told a lively audience who debated his article which was published recently in The Jakarta Post.

In his article, Kardono said that the production and use of more expensive unleaded fuels posed environmental problems which could be more dangerous than the pollution caused by leaded fuel.

Kardono agreed with a student at the seminar who said that simply changing to unleaded gasoline would do nothing for the quality of Jakarta's or other cities' air unless all gasoline engines were fitted with catalytic converters, which are found in most modern cars.

The student also said that most people would prefer to use cheaper leaded gasoline, and prefer to operate diesel buses and motorcycles, which are the biggest polluters of big cities.

The National Seminar on Air Pollution Caused by Motorized Vehicles' Emission was held by the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) and the United Nations' Information Center.

Kardono urged policy makers to start thinking of ways to ensure efficient energy consumption, pointing out that every form of energy consumption released pollution.

Participants agreed that technical and legal approaches to reducing pollution would hardly touch the air pollution problem, given poor public awareness and lax law enforcement.

Kardono cited the three-in-one policy applied in Jakarta's thoroughfares, which he said did nothing other than move traffic congestion from one place to another. It has not solved the problems of traffic congestion or energy waste as was intended.

"People deal with the policy simply by taking different routes," Kardono said.

The three-in-one policy requires private cars to carry over three passengers when traveling along Jalan Gatot Subroto, Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin between 6:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. on weekdays.

Disputes over the policy's effectiveness have risen and ebbed over the years. City administrators still consider it the best way to reduce traffic congestion.

Bapedal deputy Nabiel Makarim said people's high tolerance of pollution was an obstacle preventing public awareness. (14)