Survey shows city choking on car emissions

JAKARTA (JP): The free vehicular emission testing conducted by the city administration in cooperation with a Swiss agency has shown that realizing the goal of clean air is still a long way off, an agency official revealed on Friday.

"There were 7,942 car owners who took part in the program by checking their cars at 117 service stations. But we only analyzed 6,762 cars with sufficient data," Dollaris Riauaty of Swisscontact told The Jakarta Post by the phone.

"The results showed there were a lot of things to be done to improve our air quality, although it didn't portray the real condition of private cars."

Dollaris said only 2,770 cars met the emission standard set by the city administration. Based on the guidelines, gasoline-fueled cars must have a maximum 4.5 percent of carbon monoxide and 1,200 parts per million of hydrocarbon.

"The rest, 3,992 cars or 59 percent, have to be maintained to meet the emission level standard," she said.

"This showed that the figure of 59 percent was quite a concern to improve air quality."

She recommended car owners regularly inspect and conduct maintenance work on their vehicles.

"Cleaner air isn't the only advantage of routine vehicle inspection and maintenance. We also save fuel," she said.

"We can save our fuel consumption significantly by checking and maintaining our cars regularly. We can save up to 300 million liters of fuel each year."

She also said the city administration set a new standard for vehicular emissions as a way to help improve the air quality in the capital.

"The old standard is no longer adequate to have cleaner air. We must impose a stiffer standard," she said.

The new standard divides vehicles into two categories for those using gasoline and ones which use diesel, broken down according to their production year.

Gasoline-fueled vehicles are still divided into categories of combustion technology, according to those which have the fuel injection system and ones which do not.

Cars with noninjection technology manufactured before 1985 must have a maximum 4 percent carbon monoxide emission and 1,000 parts per million of hydrocarbon, those produced between 1986 to 1995 must have a maximum 3.5 percent and 800 parts per million and cars manufactured after 1996 must meet the standard of 3 percent and 700 parts per million.

For vehicles equipped with the injection system, there is a stricter limit.

It demands a maximum 3 percent carbon monoxide and 600 parts per million of hydrocarbon for cars manufactured between 1986 and 1995, and 2.5 percent and 500 parts per million in vehicles manufactured after 1996.

Different standards are set for diesel-fueled cars, based on the percentage of emitted smoke opacity.

Vehicles manufactured before 1985 must have an opacity level of 50 percent, ones produced from 1986 to 1995 must have 45 percent and cars made after 1996 are required to have 40 percent.

Program director Kartiko Adi Pramono said separately that car owners must realize they were responsible for pollution caused by their vehicles.

"According to the 'polluters must pay' principle, car owners must pay for car maintenance to meet the emission level," he said.

"We are also designing a system with the city administration where private car owners could obtain the necessary documents for their cars only after their vehicles could meet the emission level." (nvn)