Reducing air pollution in Jakarta

Reducing air pollution in Jakarta

Serious attention must be paid to the problem of air in pollution in Jakarta. A study published by the United Nations Development Program at the end of last year indicates that air pollution in the Indonesian capital now ranks third in the world after Mexico City and Bangkok.

This pollution gravely endangers the general health of people and causes great losses. If in 1990, according to a World Bank study, air pollution in Jakarta caused a loss of Rp 1 trillion, the monetary extent of this year's loss is easy to imagine since about 70 percent of the pollution comes from motor vehicles, whose numbers keep increasing every year.

We know that it costs money to switch from leaded to unleaded gasoline. Besides, some people could be harmed because unleaded gas is believed to be less suitable to older cars. Nevertheless we believe this cost is probably lower than that of allowing the pollution to continue to increase unchecked.

We hope nobody will make a political issue out of this problem by saying, for instance, that such a solution is hurtful to the poor, who can afford to own only older cars. The harmful effects of pollution make no distinctions between rich and poor. In fact it is usually the poor, who usually live in the most heavily polluted areas, who suffer the most from this added pollution.

The step that must be taken now is for the government to muster the courage to initiate the switch from leaded to unleaded gasoline besides promoting the use of compressed natural gas as car fuel.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta