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s residents return to Jakarta from their Idul Fitri holidays, those who remained in the capital will remember the weekend when they enjoyed fresher air and bluer skies in their city.

Julia, an employee of a travel agent in Harmoni, West Jakarta, smiled when she recalled her break.

“The air was really fresh and the traffic was quiet when I left my house in the morning,” she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Such a quiet morning and fresh air was like a gift for Julia, who battles with the deteriorating air quality at her house, not far from Pulogadung bus terminal in East Jakarta.

Julia said it had rained for several hours on Thursday afternoon, clearing away any lingering air pollution in the capital. The sky was unusually blue on Friday and Saturday when she left her house, she said.

Julia was still able to enjoy the fresh air on Sunday, although the traffic at the terminal was building up again as a number of people had started to return to the city.

Nova, a resident of Blok M in South Jakarta, also had the privilege to inhale fresh air during Idul Fitri holiday.

Nova, in her 20s, said she enjoyed the quiet moment on Jl. Fatmawati, which is usually packed with old metromini buses, which pollute the air with their toxic black fumes.

Traffic on major thoroughfares on Sunday and Monday was still smooth, with a number of motorists speeding up on the quiet streets.

Marusaha Hasibuan, the owner of a mobile phone recharge voucher kiosk in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, said he was used to inhaling the polluted air and deafening horns of old public buses stopped under the flyover in front of his kiosk.

“The air has been so fresh over these past few days, and business has been good because my competitors closed their kiosk to return to their hometowns,” he said.

An air monitoring meter placed next to a police station in front of the Grand Indonesia shopping center showed that the air quality was “good” on Sunday afternoon.

Motor vehicles are a major source of air pollutants in Indonesia’s major cities.

Such meters monitor pollution levels in the atmosphere, namely particulate matter (PM10), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3) and Non-Methane Hydrocarbon (NMHC).

The particulate matter recorded on Sunday was 30.89 micrograms per cubic meter, far lower than the tolerable limit of 150 micrograms per cubic meter, and approaching Singapore’s PM10 level of 30 micrograms per cubic meter in 2008.

Particulate matter is fine suspended particulates small enough to penetrate deep into the respiratory tract, which can cause health problems. The World Health Organization recommends a PM10 limit of 20 micrograms per cubic meter.

Sulfur dioxide was recorded at 22.25 micrograms per cubic meter, way below the tolerable limit of 900 micrograms per cubic meter, carbon monoxide was 1.29 micrograms, compared to the recommended limit of 26 micrograms per cubic meter.

Ahmad Safruddin, the chairman of the Joint Committee for the Phasing-Out of Leaded Gasoline (KPBB) said Jakarta should apply the 2005 Bylaw on Pollution Controls so that the public could enjoy fresher air, not just during the Idul Fitri holidays.

“Green zones should be expanded, public transportation and government vehicles should use gas, and the governor should be serious in enforcing the law on vehicle emissions tests,” he said.