'No easy solution to air pollution'

'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)