The price of clean air

After years of much talk and effectively no action at all, Jakarta's administrators seem at long last to have arrived at the realization that the problem of pollution in the Indonesian capital has reached the point where any further delay of action is no longer possible.

The grim statistics the authorities have released to back their argument for drastic action have only served to strengthen the public's impression of indecisiveness -- not to say incompetence -- on the part of the city administration in dealing with the problem of pollution that has for decades plagued this city of more than 10 million.

Be that as it may, the indisputable fact remains that for Jakarta's citizenry the time of reckoning has arrived. As of January this year, no fewer than 4.5 million motorized vehicles plied the city's roads. About 4.4 million of them, or 98 percent, were privately owned motor vehicles, comprising some 1.5 million cars and three million motorbikes. Over the past six years, the number of motorized vehicles on the roads has been growing at a rate of between 7 percent and 11 percent annually, giving rise to the projection that by 2014 all of the main roads in the city will be congested around the clock with emission-belching vehicles.

Although relatively small in number, the 600,000 two-stroke motorbikes in Jakarta are major offenders in terms of air pollution, one such vehicle emitting about the same amount of exhaust gas as 20 reasonably maintained cars.

Little wonder Jakarta is ranked among the worst cities in the world -- third after Mexico City and Bangkok -- in terms of air pollution. During the whole of 2004, the city had only 51 environmentally "clean" days, the remaining 314 days being classified either as "reasonable" or "bad".

The city's motor vehicles release 43,171 tons of nitrogen dioxide into the air annually, as well as 33,876 tons of hydrocarbons, 706,123 tons of carbon monoxide and 11,771 tons of carbon dioxide. And the situation continues to grow worse by the year.

In light of all this, no one will dispute the soundness of the argument that the Jakarta City Council put forward late last month that the number of motor vehicles in the city must be kept in check. The City Council initially proposed to achieve this not only by making regular emission checks compulsory, but by banning from the streets all public transportation vehicles older than 10 years and private cars older than 15 years.

Obviously, it is difficult to see how such a plan could be realized without causing social disruption in a city where the overwhelming majority of the population is poor and a great number of motor vehicles, whether public or private, are old and decrepit. The sensible solution was to scrap the age limit on cars, but retain the compulsory emission test requirement. If or when the proposal is passed into law, Jakartans will be fined a hefty Rp 50,000,000 if they neglect to have their cars tested once every six months.

It could be argued that the same heavy penalties, or even heavier, should also be given to polluting industries, which are estimated to account for some 30 percent of the air pollution in Jakarta. Jakartans will no doubt be closely watching whether the authorities make good on their promise eventually to extend the pollution ban to include the industrial sector.

As for smokers, the bad news is that a Rp 50,000,000 penalty will await them if they light up in public places where smoking will be prohibited.

There can be no denying that the new regulations will inconvenience certain parts of the community. However, that is the price Jakarta's citizenry must pay if the Indonesian capital is to escape the lot of becoming an unlivable city by 2014. The important point that must be made here is not that limitations, in whatever form, are unacceptable, but how to make sure that the burden of keeping the city viable as a functioning urban center is spread out as evenly and equitably as possible across the entire community.

Our only hope is that this well-intentioned plan is given the chance to fulfill its objectives and that Jakarta is spared the fate that doomsayers have predicted for the city and its populace.