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While talking 2024, has Anies done enough on clean air for Jakartans?
According to the 2020 report by Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), the University of Chicago, the average life-expectancy loss of citizens in Greater Jakarta due to poor air quality amounted to 5.7 years, among the highest figures in Southeast Asia.
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Smog blankets Jakarta’s skyscrapers on Aug. 19, 2019. Air pollution in the city is among the worst in the world. (JP/Donny Fernando)
Like many mothers, before I go out with my 4-year-old, I always open an air-quality app like Nafas to check for air quality.
In the mornings, the whole map of Jakarta is painted red, with some purple tags. These are color codes that correspond with the quality of air. Green is obviously good, yellow moderate, orange is unhealthy for sensitive groups, red is unhealthy and purple is very unhealthy.
The fact is, Jakarta citizens have been breathing in pollutants all our lives. And the situation is not getting better. According to the 2021 World Air Quality Report, Jakarta is amongst the top-12 most-polluted cities in the world.
One of those pollutants is PM2.5 -- a particulate matter so small that it goes into our lungs unfiltered, and can easily go into our bloodstream. Naturally it wreaks havoc in our bodies, from respiratory infections to stomach ulcers, heart disease, even cancer. And in a recent study that should scare parents by ISGlobal, it is associated with altering the brain structure of children under 5 years old.
According to the 2020 report by Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), the University of Chicago, the average life-expectancy loss of citizens in Greater Jakarta due to poor air quality amounted to 5.7 years, among the highest in Southeast Asia. The figure can go up to 6.9 years if no improvement is made.
In 2021, the World Health Organization set a new standard for a safe limit of concentration of PM2.5 in the air: 5 micrograms/cubic of air. Jakarta's average in the same year? Thirty-9 micrograms/cubic. That is almost eight times the safe limit.
In 2019, the people of Jakarta filed a citizens' lawsuit through Koalisi Ibukota claiming the government was negligent in providing citizens their right to clean air. And guess what?
