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View all search resultsDry season boosts concern about Jakarta's air quality
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The city skyline is enveloped in pollution haze in Jakarta on May 7, 2026. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
W
ith the dry season approaching, concerns are mounting over deteriorating air quality in Jakarta with this year’s El Niño predicted to exacerbate the pollution and increase health risks for millions of people.
Data from Swiss technology company IQAir showed that Jakarta saw one of its worst average air quality days so far this year in June. The average level of PM.25 pollutant increased from the “moderate” category set by IQAir between last November and April to “unhealthy” in June.
On June 18, the level of PM2.5 pollutant reached around 61 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3), around 11 times higher than the safety limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Jakarta’s air quality typically drops during El Niño, a periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that often brings drier and prolonged dry seasons to the city and Indonesia in general.
During the 2023-2024 El Niño season, the PM2.5 concentration in Indonesia reached 100 µg/m3, according to a study published earlier this year.
Researchers of the study linked the rise in pollutants to the dynamics of the seasonal monsoon, which affects the direction and power of winds in Southeast Asia.
In normal conditions, the monsoon can help carry and spread pollutants like PM2.5 to prevent it from accumulating in a certain region. However, El Niño changes the atmospheric circulation pattern and reduces its capacity to blow away the pollutants, lowering the air quality in the city and raising the health risks from pollution for its residents.
