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Govt, city claim much being done about air pollution
Shades of grey: A girl looks at the National Monument (Monas) as smog covers Jakarta on Thursday
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hades of grey: A girl looks at the National Monument (Monas) as smog covers Jakarta on Thursday. Residents have filed a civil lawsuit and demanded the administration step up efforts to prevent air pollution from getting worse.(Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
The central government and the Jakarta administration have claimed that measures are being taken regarding air pollution, as they adopt a defensive posture in response to a civil lawsuit filed by a group of fed-up residents. The authorities brushed off the notion that they had a hands-off approach to declining air quality.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry’s pollution and environmental damage control director general, Karliansyah, said the ministry welcomed the lawsuit, as it indicated that people were aware of their rights.
“If citizens are aware of their rights, we hope it will not be limited to air pollution but [extend to] other issues, like water and waste. We can build a clean country together,” he said on Friday at a press conference at the ministry in response to the lawsuit.
In a movement named Tim Advokasi Ibukota (Jakarta Advocacy Team), 31 plaintiffs filed a historic civil lawsuit with the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday, bringing their protests over “sickening” air pollution to the legal sphere in a bid to force the authorities to do something. It was addressed to the President, the environment and forestry minister, the health minister, the home minister and the governors of Jakarta, Banten and West Java.
The central government had encouraged regional governments to improve public transportation, increase the number of urban parks, encourage car-free days, establish park-and-ride facilities and improve sidewalks, Karliansyah said.
The government is currently revising several regulations, including the 1999 government regulation on air pollution and the 1997 ministerial decree on the standard air pollution index. The latter includes changing the parameter of particulate matter (PM) from PM10 to PM2.5.
In addition, the ministry would set up more air quality measurement equipment across the country and improve measurement techniques to provide more accurate data, he added.
On a separate occasion, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said many factors contributed to air pollution. He called on residents to play their part as well, including by switching from private vehicles to public transportation.
“The declining air quality is not only caused by one or two professions but by all of us, including our friends who filed the lawsuit,” he told reporters at City Hall in a thinly-veiled scoff at the plaintiffs.
“If we were all riding bicycles every day, it would be a different story,” he said, adding that Jakarta, as the capital city and the country’s business center, suffered the impact of various activities.
Similarly to Karliansyah, Anies claimed short- and long-term programs were underway to tackle the pollution problem.
The city planned to install more air quality measurement equipment to cover a wider area, he said.
“Next year, we will start controlling the motorized vehicle emission test. Vehicles operating in Jakarta shall pass an emission test. Those that don’t pass, will be [subject to] a disincentive tax and higher parking fees,” he added.
The administration is looking into the possibility of making artificial rain over the city as a short-term solution. The idea was proposed by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT).
The city had developed a road map on air pollution control until 2030 comprising 14 action plans, one of which was to adopt environmentally friendly public transportation, Anies said.
The focus was on improving transportation, as motor vehicle emissions contributed about 75 percent to pollution, said the acting head of the Jakarta Environment Agency, Andono Warih.
Committee for the Phasing Out of Leaded Fuel (KPBB) executive director Ahmad Safrudin said tackling air pollution required the participation of all stakeholders and as such was not limited to the defendants.
“Air pollution control depends on [several] aspects, namely clean energy, low-emission technology, land use, traffic and transportation management, emissions and ambient air quality standards as well as law enforcement. [Each stakeholder] plays a role,” he told The Jakarta Post.
