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View all search results[INSIGHT] Greater Jakarta’s air quality improves during PSBB
Home to 32 million people, most of whom commute to the capital city, Greater Jakarta is no stranger to unbearable traffic.
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H
ome to 32 million people, most of whom commute to the capital city, Greater Jakarta is no stranger to unbearable traffic. Add to it the high demand for electricity, industrial growth and lack of enforcement against burning trash, the air quality in the metropolitan area has been worsening steadily, year after year.
The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) estimates that the average resident will lose 4.9 years of life expectancy as a result of air pollution. Globally, 8 million people die each year from air pollution-related diseases. This means that air pollution claims more lives than the combined fatalities from COVID-19, tuberculosis, malaria and car accidents.
What is even more devastating is that many of the preexisting health conditions that increase the risk of COVID-19 death are the same diseases that are caused by long-term exposure to air pollution. A Harvard University study has found that an increase of just 1 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3) in particulate matter (PM) 2.5 is associated with an 8 percent increase in deaths from COVID-19.
To put this into perspective, the average air quality in June (71 µg/m3) for Greater Jakarta is 4.9 times more likely to increase the local COVID-19 death rate than in a city that meets the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) air quality standard of 10 µg /m3.
That said, there was good news on air quality during the four-week phase two of the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in Jakarta, which ran from Sept. 14 to Oct. 11.
First, the average air quality during the PSBB months were unhealthy for sensitive groups with an Air Quality Index (AQI) ranging from 101-150, and unhealthy (AQI 151-200) during the transitional PSBB. The latest PSBB resulted in a lower AQI compared to the previous months, though not as low as in May, when the PSBB was imposed across Greater Jakarta. The second PSBB was implemented only in the capital and was relatively more lax in comparison, but nevertheless still made a noticeable impact on Greater Jakarta’s air quality.
Second, the air quality got better as the PSBB continued. The week before the PSBB was imposed recorded an average AQI of 156 (unhealthy). By the fourth week of the PSBB, the average AQI was 102 (unhealthy for sensitive groups). Week after week under the PSBB, the city saw a consistent downward trend in its AQI, indicating that the quality of its air was improving.
