Bambang Parlupi, Jakarta – Air pollution in Jakarta is causing increasing concern, with air quality failing to improve significantly from year to year. Seventy percent of this pollution comes from motor vehicles, 25 percent from industry and the remaining from other activities like burning rubbish.
At present, the total of motor vehicles in Jakarta on the basis of vehicle registration reaches 6.3 million. At least 21,000 motor vehicles are estimated to be on the roads at any given hour.
The millions of motor vehicles emit dangerous emissions. Carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NO), lead (Pb) and fine particles (PM10) become harmful substances if highly concentrated in the air. They also turn toxic upon entering the human body through respiration, skin absorption and ingestion. Jakarta citizens have to bear the consequences of polluting the air.
"Since 1999, acute respiratory infection has been one of the 10 major diseases affecting Jakartans," said Kosasih Wirahadikusuma, head of the Jakarta Environmental Impact Management Agency.
Vehicle exhaust may affect child intelligence. If too much lead is absorbed in the blood and affects brain cells, thought capacity is reduced.
Research conducted by Dr. Budi Susilo from the School of Environmental Science, the University of Indonesia, indicates that air pollution can cause acid rain that has very harmful effects on human health and the environment.
In Jakarta, acid rain was once recorded in the Pulogadung Industrial Estate, East Jakarta. "It may cause cancer and baldness in men while disrupting the ecosystem," he said.
Several things can be done to improve the quality of air in Jakarta. One of the methods as suggested by Kosasih is to launch replanting drives for the expansion of green areas. "Basically, trees can naturally absorb air pollutants. Those with broad leaves have a greater absorption capacity than those with small leaves," he noted.
In this context, the Jakarta administration has been striving to communicate its Regional Regulation No.2/2005 on air pollution control, to the general public. Article 26, Paragraph 1 of the regulation stipulates that every individual or manager of a business or activity is obliged to attempt to develop open green space for air quality restoration.
As a penalty, Article 41 specifies that any violation of the provision in Article 26, Paragraph 1 is liable to a maximum prison term of six months or a maximum fine of Rp 50 million.
"The regulation, prepared three years ago, will come into force in February 2006," added Kosasih.
Based on a study by the Landscape Development Institute, School of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Technology, Trisakti University, Jakarta, in 2003, the capital city needs 23,000 ha of open green space for air quality control and pollutant gas absorption, meaning about 35 percent of Jakarta's total area. But its open green space target for 2010 is only 13.94 percent (9,544 ha).
It implies that by 2010 Jakarta will only have a water resorption capacity of 54 percent and air quality control capacity of 40 percent. In fact, one hectare of open green space is capable of absorbing 736,000 liters of water, producing 0.6 ton of oxygen for consumption by 1,500 people daily, transferring 4,000 liters of water equivalent to a temperature reduction of 5 degrees to 8 degrees centigrade daily, and muffling noise by 25 percent to 80 percent.