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South Tangerang, not Jakarta, has most polluted air in Southeast Asia: IQAir
South Tangerang takes first place among the top 15 Indonesian cities with the worst air quality, alongside neighbors Jakarta, Tangerang in Banten and Bekasi and Bandung in West Java.
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Motorists pass through the Pamulang toll gate to get into the Serpong-Cinere toll road in South Tangerang, Banten, on Feb. 20, 2024. (Antara/Muhammad Iqbal)
The South Tangerang municipality in Banten is declared as the city with the worst air pollution throughout last year in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, surpassing its neighbor Jakarta, in the annual report issued by Swiss air monitoring firm IQAir.
The firm, which published its study on Tuesday, found that the city’s average level of PM2.5 fine particulate matter was marked “unhealthy” at 71.7, over 15 times higher than the safe threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Greater Jakarta area has been vulnerable to air pollution for years, mostly caused by industrial smog, the exhausts of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and coal-fired power plants, whose pollution frequently travels across borders.
For the over 1.7 million residents of South Tangerang, unabating air pollution and unpredictable weather changes caused by the climate crisis have most likely caused a spike in acute respiratory infections, with cases rising by 20 percent. Nearly 30,000 people were treated for such illnesses last year, according to the city’s health agency.
Read also: Jakarta’s long fight for healthier air persists
One of them is Rustaria Miraddani, a 31-year-old South Tangerang resident who has suffered from a respiratory infection in the past week. She also complained that the view from her high-rise apartment had featured a predominantly smoggy landscape as opposed to blue skies.
