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Jakarta hit by major pollution spike: Air quality monitor
Air pollution is estimated to contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year globally and is considered by the United Nations to be the single biggest environmental health risk.
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akarta has been the world’s most polluted city on four days this week, according to air quality monitor IQAir, as authorities fail to grapple with a spike in toxic smog.
Air pollution is estimated to contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year globally and is considered by the United Nations to be the single biggest environmental health risk.
Jakarta and its surrounds, making around 30 million people, had outpaced other heavily polluted cities including Riyadh, Doha and Lahore during the week in the concentration of tiny particles known as PM 2.5, AFP reported.
It has topped IQAir’s live ranking of pollution data, which only tracks major cities, at least once every day since Monday, based on the Swiss company’s data.
Jakarta has regularly recorded “unhealthy” levels of PM 2.5, which can penetrate airways to cause respiratory problems, many times above the World Health Organization’s recommended levels.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told reporters on Monday he planned to tackle pollution levels by reducing “Jakarta’s burden” as the country prepared to move its capital next year to Nusantara in East Kalimantan.
He also said a planned metro rail network across Jakarta ”must be finished” to reduce pollution.
Residents have complained that the pollution caused by industrial smog, traffic congestion and coal-powered plants was affecting their lives and health.
“I have to wear a mask all the time. Both my body and my face are suffering,” Anggy Violita, a 32-year-old office worker, told AFP.
“Last week, my entire family was sick for a week and the doctor told me I should stay indoors,” said the mother of two.
A court decided in favor of a lawsuit filed by activists and citizens against the government in 2021, ruling that Jokowi and other top officials had been negligent in protecting Jakarta’s residents and ordering him to clean up the city’s notorious air pollution.
Jakarta Environment Agency spokesperson Yogi Ikhwan said the air quality in the city had worsened since April, with an average PM 2.5 level of 29.7 micrograms per cubic meter.
Yogi said the administration had taken measures to tackle the city’s chronic air pollution, including by requiring vehicles to undergo emissions tests, implementing the odd-even license plate policy, increasing parking prices to reduce traffic and revitalizing pedestrian infrastructure.
But activists have lamented the lack of improvement in Jakarta’s air quality over the past two years.
Indonesia has pledged to stop building new coal-fired power plants from 2023 and to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Despite an outcry from activists, however, the government is expanding the enormous Suralaya coal plant on Java, one of the biggest islands in Southeast Asia.
According to Greenpeace Indonesia, 10 coal-fired power plants are operating within a 100-kilometer radius of the capital.
