JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) - The dry season and motor vehicles are the main contributors to air pollution in Jakarta, Indonesian authorities said Friday, after a Swiss air quality technology company named the city the world's most polluted.
Thick smoke and gray skies have been observed every morning for the past few months in Jakarta, the capital city of the fourth most populous country in the world.
Jakarta regularly tops lists of the most polluted cities in the world, recently compiled by the Swiss airline IQAir.
"In fact, the air quality situation in Jakarta in 2023 fluctuated a lot," Asip Kuswanta, head of the Jakarta Environmental Protection Agency, said at a press briefing on Friday.
Indonesia is currently going through its dry season, which runs from July to September when air pollution is at its peak. Air quality is deteriorating in most parts of Jakarta due to the influence of dry air from the east of the country.
The use of motorized vehicles is also an important factor. Data from the Ministry of Environment and Forests show that 44% of air pollution comes from transportation and 31% from industry.
Jakarta's roads are filled with inefficient and polluting vehicles, especially motorcycles. Maintenance standards are poor and rarely followed. Lack of public transportation means most people rely on private cars, which can sit in traffic for hours.
More than 11 million people live in Jakarta, 30 million of whom live in the greater metropolitan area. Air pollution has become a sensitive issue, with millions of people commuting into the city every day via satellite.
In 2021, an Indonesian court ruled that President Joko Widodo and six other senior officials had neglected citizens' right to clean air and ordered them to improve air quality in the capital.
There is an increasing number of cases of respiratory diseases that are believed to be related to air pollution. The Jakarta Health Bureau also acknowledged an increase in health problems caused by air pollution in 2023 compared to 2022.
It has increased since 2022. Doi Octavia, chief of disease prevention and control at the Jakarta Health Agency, said:
To avoid further growth, Octavia said, "We need to actively use public transport and bicycles."
On Monday, President Widodo acknowledged that air pollution in Jakarta has existed for years. Widodo said moving the capital from Jakarta to Nusantara on Borneo island is one solution.
Widodo's plan to relocate the capital, first proposed in 2019, involves building government buildings and housing from scratch around the seaport of Balikpapan, about 2,000km northeast of Jakarta.
“One solution is to reduce the load in Jakarta so that part of it is then transferred to Nusantara. Public transportation is very important,” said Widodo.
