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Holy smog! Jakarta’s air quality gets worse
Hardly visible: Smog blankets Jakarta’s skyscrapers on Tuesday
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ardly visible: Smog blankets Jakarta’s skyscrapers on Tuesday. Air pollution in the city is among the worst in the world.(JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
Many Jakartans are so familiar with seeing smog covering the metropolis that when they see clear blue sky, they instantly post it on their Instagram accounts.
According to data from the air pollution monitoring stations in Central Jakarta and South Jakarta owned by the United States Embassy in Jakarta, fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in the city’s air throughout 2016 and 2018 was above the ambient air quality standard set by the Jakarta administration at 15 micrograms per cubic meter. The standard set by the World Health Organization is 10 μm/m3.
In 2018, the yearly concentration of PM 2.5 was recorded at 42.2 μm/m3 in South Jakarta and 37.5 μm/m3 at the Central Jakarta monitoring station.
Ozone concentration was also found to be at alarming levels, as according to Jakarta Environment Agency data throughout 2011 to 2018, places such as the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta, Jagakarsa in South Jakarta, Lubang Buaya in East Jakarta and Kebon Jeruk in West Jakarta were always above the Jakarta standard of 30 μm/m3. The national standard is 50 μm/m3.
In 2018, the ozone concentration level at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle was 48.69 μm/m3, at Kelapa Gading 54.46 μm/m3, at Jagakarsa 74.69 μm/m3, at Lubang Buaya 45.99 μm/m3 and at Kebon Jeruk 52.51 μm/m3.
“Jakarta’s air quality is generally getting worse because [the records] are always above the [minimum] quality standard,” Committee for the Phasing Out of Leaded Fuel (KPBB) executive director Ahmad Safrudin said in a discussion on Monday.
He added that to make matters worse, the city needed up to 26 air pollution monitoring stations, but was only able to afford five of them that recorded levels of coarse particle matters smaller than 10 microns in diameter (PM 10) , sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO).
Ahmad warned that with the current trend, air pollution in the city would increase by 20 percent this year and would almost triple by 2030.
He blamed motorized vehicles and factories for the worsening air quality, as according to KPBB data in 2016, 47 percent of air pollution came from motorized vehicles, while factories contributed about 22 percent, with the rest coming from domestic households, dust, trash burning and construction projects.
He said the city should strictly enforce emissions requirements on motorized vehicles, as regulated by Law No. 22/2009 on traffic.
Bandung Institute of Technology environment expert Driejana said air quality could still improve as Jakarta was expecting new modes of public transportation, namely the MRT set to operate in March and the light rail transit (LRT) set to operate in April.
“If people switched to public transportation consistently, then air quality could improve,” Driejana said.
Thamrin School for Climate Change and Sustainability founder Jalal said the central government also had a pending task to improve air quality by revising Government Regulation No. 41/1999 on air pollution control.
“The main task is revising and implementing the regulation. It has been 20 years. Is it still relevant?” Jalal said.
He also urged the Jakarta governor to discuss with West Java and Banten governors about multiple jurisdiction problems in air pollution.
Jakarta is surrounded by eight coal-fired power plants within a 100-kilometer radius of the city, which contributes to air pollution in the capital.
The head of the Jakarta Environment Agency’s environmental pollution division, Agung Pujo Winarko, said the administration had consistently mitigated air pollution. He said the city was currently increasing efforts to encourage more citizens to get their vehicles emissions tested, with the E-UJI EMISI smartphone app launched in July last year.
“We made the app so residents could be more aware of emissions tests. They can also check in the app which mechanics offer emissions tests,” Agung told the The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
From January to June 2018 only 1,800 vehicles passed the emissions tests that were recorded by the city, while from July to December, after the app was introduced, up to 13,000 vehicles had had their emissions tested.
