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Pollution haze chokes Jakarta on its 497th anniversary
Acting Jakarta governor Heru Budi Hartono dismissed concerns on the deteriorating air quality in Jakarta, saying that air pollution is a common occurrence in various major cities across the world and stressing the government's anti-pollution measures such as cloud seeding and mist spraying.
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The Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta is seen on June 15, 2024, shrouded in haze from pollution. (Antara/Sulthony Hasanuddin)
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head of its 497th anniversary, Jakarta sat among the top 10 major cities with the most polluted air worldwide despite authorities scrambling to clear the smog and trying to address its root causes.
The city’s Air Quality Index, based on the measurement from Swiss tech company IQAir, reached an “unhealthy” level of 223 on Tuesday.
The average index for that day was 174, still categorized as unhealthy.
The figure remained in the same category on the city’s anniversary on Saturday, when the average index was around 162. That day, the city’s air was only slightly better than in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which had an AQI of 168 and was worse than New Delhi, India and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which had AQIs of 153 and 139, respectively.
Saturday’s average concentration of PM2.5 fine particulate matter – the main pollutant found in Jakarta’s air – that can penetrate airways and cause respiratory problems, reached 71 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) of air; around 15 times higher than the safe threshold recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) at 5 µg/m3.
When asked about the low air quality, acting Jakarta governor Heru Budi Hartono dismissed the concerns, saying that it was a regular occurrence in major cities around the world.
“Everywhere in the world is polluted,” Heru said on Wednesday, as quoted by Kompas.
