Walhi says city's masterplan has incorrect strategy
Walhi says city's masterplan has incorrect strategy
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi)
has criticized the implementation of the city's masterplan, which
they believe has caused major problems for the public.
Zukri Saad, a member of the Walhi executive council, told The
Jakarta Post yesterday that the city administration is the source
of several difficulties because they have applied an incorrect
strategy in managing the city's masterplan.
"If the Sudirman Central Business District starts operating,
the business complex will be occupied by around 150,000 people
and we do not have an integrated transportation system to serve
them," he said.
He added that the environmental supportive resource in the
area has been unable to support the activities.
"The Sudirman area is not supposed to be this crowded," he
said.
Zukri said that the press of hundreds of thousands of people
in some buildings on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin during the rush
hour has caused many problems, such as traffic congestion,
inefficient use of water and air pollution.
Meanwhile, Saut M. Lubis, the Director of Sea and Air
Pollution Prevention Control Agency (Bapedal), acknowledged that
the air pollution in Jakarta was mostly due to the exhaust fumes
from Jakarta's passing vehicles.
Previously, Governor Surjadi Soedirdja told the plenary
session of the City Council at City Hall that one of the major
success stories over the past year was how Jakarta had managed to
keep its environment clean and healthy.
Surjadi said his administration would continue making the city
cleaner, healthier and more beautiful by demolishing slums to
pave the way for apartment construction. He also said he would
set aside more plots for trees.
Difficult
Saut added, however, that applying emissions control standards
was more difficult for motor vehicles than industry.
"Controlling the traffic emissions is not only a technical
matter, the problem is related to the other factors such as
social and economic conditions," he said.
"We could not rigidly apply a regulation to restrict the
operation of all vehicles which discharge thick exhaust fumes
from their mufflers because it would put many of the city busses
out of operation," he said.
He said that the old vehicles usually discharge thick exhaust
fumes.
"In Singapore, their government prohibited the operation of
vehicles which had already been used for 10 years, while the same
regulation would be judged as social discrimination here," he
said.
However, Saut said that to solve the problem the government
planned to produce low lead carbonate level gasoline from Exor I,
the oil refinery owned by state-owned oil company Pertamina in
Balongan, West Java.
He said that the lead content of Exor I production will only
range from 0.2 grams per liter to 0.3 grams per liter.
Saut explained that before 1990 the lead content in the
gasoline and fuel which was sold in Indonesia was around 0.7
grams of lead per liter to 0.84 grams per liter. Today, the
government has been able to decrease the lead content to 0.44
grams per liter.
The unleaded fuel is an international standard fuel which
contains less than 0.013 grams of lead per liter.
He said that unleaded gasoline is already widely used in many
countries including in Singapore and Malaysia.
According to research carried by the Urban Environment
Research Office (KPPL) in 1993, the content of pollutant elements
in Jakarta's air was increased gradually.
The office reported that the dust element in the city's air
has exceeded the city's tolerable standard of 260 micro gram per
cubic meter.
The highest lead carbonate element in the city's air was found
in Sawah Besar area in Central Jakarta with 11.75 micro grams per
meter cubic and the lowest was found in Pondok Gede area in East
Jakarta, with 0.08 micro grams per cubic meter. (03)