Jakarta – Six billboards that welcomed visitors to the "city of pollution" were removed by officials Wednesday, just days after they were put up for World Environment Day on Monday.
The move comes as a setback for environmentalists, who had praised the city administration for its directness in urging people to get their vehicles' exhaust emissions tested. The administration has said that exhaust from gasoline-guzzling private cars and industries contributes up to 80 percent of pollution in the city.
One billboard was erected in each of Jakarta's five municipalities on Sunday, while the sixth was positioned outside the office of the Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) in Casablanca, South Jakarta, on Monday.
The billboard shows a boy and a girl, striking the same poses as the children in the Welcome Statue in the center of the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle – only holding their noses. It reads, "Welcome to the city of pollution."
"We were instructed by our boss to take the billboards down," BPLHD head Kosasih Wirahadikusumah told The Jakarta Post through cell phone from a meeting with other officials in Puncak, Bogor.
He defended the billboards, saying they were designed together with clean air campaigner Swisscontact, in line with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's policy of openness. "If we don't slap ourselves (awake), we will surely remain in a stupor," Kosasih said.
Jakarta is the first city in the country to enforce air pollution controls and smoking bans in a range of public places. It also made mandatory emissions tests for private vehicles and the use of environmentally friendly compressed natural gas for public transportation vehicles and official cars. To support the policy, the Transportation Ministry on Tuesday handed over 4,000 natural gas conversion kits to the city administration to be distributed to the owners of public transportation vehicles.
"It will take at least until the end of this year to successfully distribute the free kits," the head of the Jakarta Mining Agency, Peni Susanti, said at City Hall after meeting Governor Sutiyoso and the deputy head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency, Udar Pristono, on Tuesday.
Peni, together with the transportation agency, is responsible for the project. The conversion kits are valued at between Rp 8 million (US$842) and Rp 10 million, depending on the size of the vehicle's engine.
"My office is proposing the central government lower the price of CNG, from Rp 3,000 to Rp 2,200 per liter. One liter of CNG lasts a distance of 20 kilometers," Peni said. A liter of gasoline costs Rp 4,500.
Governor Sutiyoso said earlier that investors who intended to build gas stations needed to commit to installing CNG fixtures as well. "Otherwise, they won't get a permit," he said. To date, 50 investors have applied for operational permits.
Only eight of the 264 gas stations in Greater Jakarta sell CNG, while another six are under renovation. The administration plans to build 15 more CNG stations across the city to meet the demands of public transportation operators.