Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta ● Thursday June 22, 2023 traffic
It will be harder for Jakarta to blow out the anniversary candles today than in the past, as the number will be 496, the capital is getting harder and harder to breathe.
The lack of efforts by the central government and the Jakarta government to address the capital's pollution problem is stifling. Apart from the daily haze that makes our visibility difficult, there is no end in sight.
The city said it has taken steps to address the chronic problem, including requiring vehicles to undergo regular emissions testing, implementing an odd license plate policy, increasing parking fees and creating more open infrastructure to reduce traffic and revitalize pedestrian infrastructure. . green spaces that limit emissions in the industrial sector and facilitate a faster transition to greener energy.
But the numbers say otherwise.
In recent weeks, Jakarta has topped the list of cities with the worst air quality. Jakarta's air quality index (AQI) was 157, putting it in the "unhealthy" category, according to data calculated by IQAir, a Swiss climate technology company.
Earlier this month, Jakarta's air was reported to contain 67 micrograms per cubic meter (mcg/m3) of the pollutant PM 2.5 – a class of inhalable substances commonly responsible for various respiratory diseases – 13.4 times the level considered safe. World Health Organization (WHO).
The city administration agreed with the message. According to its own analysis, the Jakarta Environmental Protection Agency reported that air quality has deteriorated since April, with an average PM 2.5 level of 29.7 µg/m3, nearly doubling to 50.21 µg. /m3.m3 the following month.
Based on PM 2.5 trends over the past four years, city officials said Jakarta's air quality periodically deteriorated during the dry season from May to August and improved during the rainy season from September to August-December.
Activists and residents lamented the lack of improvement in Jakarta's air quality, noting in particular that a September 2021 court ruling found President Joko "Jokowi" Widado and senior central and city government officials guilty of negligence for failing to address air pollution. . . pollution of the capital.
Jakarta's Central District Court has ordered the president, environment and forest minister, health minister, interior minister, and the governors of Jakarta, Banten, and West Java to toughen environmental protection standards, improve systems of air pollution control and periodically inspect the emissions of obsolete vehicles. . The Environment and Forestry Ministry has also been tasked with monitoring the three governors and ensuring they comply with court orders.
In October 2022, the Jakarta High Court rejected the central government's appeal against the district court's decision and urged the government not to take any further legal action against Jakarta's air quality improvement.
Sparking public outrage, the government appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court without doing much to address deteriorating air quality in the capital.
While underinvestment in public transportation, inefficient urban planning, and a lack of green space exacerbate the pollution problem, a larger collective effort by leaders in Jakarta and beyond is critical to addressing air pollution.
Coal-fired power plants generating 55.8 percent of Indonesia's total coal-fired power, or 25 gigawatts, are located 500 kilometers from Jakarta, exposing the city's population to 1.25 billion tons, according to the report, carbon dioxide emissions per year. C40 of the Citi network.
The report ranked Jakarta in the top three out of 61 cities worldwide for premature deaths related to coal-fired power plants in 2019. If new power plants come online by 2030, this number could double to more than 3,000.
As it is, Jakarta may be facing a biblical end: unless radical measures are taken to save the city and its people, the city will be flooded and its inhabitants doomed to drown.
Happy birthday, Jakarta. Wish you all the best.
