Indra Harsaputra, Malang – Set in the mountains, the picturesque and cool city of Malang, East Java, is now getting hotter according to locals and not, they say, for a good reason.

Situated at the foot of the Welirang, Semeru and Penanggungan mountains, residents say the resort has changed for the worse during the past five years. They worry higher temperatures along with increasing pollution and traffic congestion will make Malang a less-attractive destination for tourists trying to escape their own overcrowded cities.

"Unlike several years back, Malang is now getting warmer; it's not that different now to Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya," Rudi Sudarmanto, a management student at Brawijaya University (Unibraw) in the city, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Unclean air "The jams in several sections of Malang are now so severe that they resemble Surabaya's bottlenecks; they're forcing some motorists to wear masks so they don't inhale gas fumes," he said.

Despite a mask – and the mountain air – Rudi said he still had frequent respiratory trouble with dizziness and sore eyes in the dry season.

Rudi is not alone. Data from the Malang municipal health office shows that acute upper respiratory infections, while on the decline, are still widespread in the city. In 2000, 185,690 people were infected, dropping slightly to 171,390, people in 2001.

A similar pattern has emerged in the Malang region, with upper respiratory infections topping the list of the 10 most prevalent illnesses in the area – in 1999, 502,199 cases were recorded, with 437,873 in 2000 and 129,385 in 2002.

In Surabaya, these infections reached 419,401 in 2000, declining slightly to 405,148 in 2001 and 401,362 in 2002.

Compared with Surabaya, the incidence of respiratory trouble in Malang is considered high, despite the large quantitative difference, in view of Malang's lower population and industrial density.

Head of Malang's Regional Environment Impact Control Board (Bapeldada), Sailendra, said the change in Malang's air quality was the combination of land use planning decisions by the local administration, industrial growth, automotive gas emissions and forest destruction around Malang following widespread illegal logging. But while they might be worsening, air quality test results carried out by the city administration in Malang in September this year, showed average city air pollution rates were still within normal limits set out in the East Java Governor's Decree No. 129/1996.

At the always-busy Arjosari bus terminal, carbon monoxide was recorded at 0.70 parts per million (ppm), lower than the standard of 20 ppm, lead at 0, sulfur dioxide at 0.0053 ppm (standard=0.1 ppm) and ammonia at 0.0573 ppm (the standard is 2 ppm).

"The highest record was held by dust at 0.167 ppm, still lower than the quality standard of 0.26 ppm. This dust is mostly likely to have caused the high incidence of respiratory ailments," Sailendra said.

It was not caused by automotive and industrial gases, which produced lead and carbon dioxide, he said, but rather from conflagration-prone forests and mountains around Malang like those in Batu, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, and the recent volcanic eruption at Mount Semeru.

"The change in Malang's air quality is actually more due to forest damage in its environs," he said.

Forest destruction Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park chief Herry Subagiadi, agreed, saying the ecosystem imbalance was more affected by the destruction of forests around the city.

"Timber theft, illegal logging and land reclamation for plantations, settlements and farms have contributed to the forests' destruction," he told the Post.

Park data indicates that forest fires in the Bromo Tengger Semeru zone in August covered 513.57 hectares, up from only 38.50 hectares in the preceding month. The figures may rise, given the lack of awareness of ecosystem maintenance and the absence of controls.

Likewise, 13.50 hectares of forests were being illegally occupied by squatters or companies who were clearing the land and constructing houses, farms and residential estates. Police are currently investigating the cases.

With forest fires and reclamation, about 30 percent of the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park's total area of 50,276 hectares has been laid to waste.

Herry said the damage excluded destruction in production forest zones managed by the state forestry company Perum Perhutani, which were also considerably reclaimed for agriculture and plantations. Hundreds of hectares of forests in Malang regency and its surroundings had been denuded," he said.

Deforestation on mountain slopes also meant the areas become vulnerable to natural disasters. In 2002, 1,241 locals were injured and four died in 49 landslides, 86 floods and 167 storms, which destroyed 267 houses and 36 public buildings.

The Sumber Pucung and Kalipare districts are notorious for their landslides, while the districts of Bantur, Tirtoyudo, Sumber Manjing, Pagelaran and Jabung were known flood-prone areas.

Herry said car traffic on Mount Bromo had also damaged its scenic beauty.

History and modern-day development Located at an altitude of 399 meters to 662.5 meters, Malang was officially established by the Dutch colonial administration on April 25, 1938, and still has many historic buildings, especially centered around the Ijen Boulevard area.

Today the area has become a nostalgic place, often frequented by Dutch tourists.

In 1879, Malang's municipal railways began to operate, triggering the city's rapid advancement. With the rising public demand for infrastructure, land use underwent a major transformation.

More recently, the historic city is changing again. Declared an international education city on October 4, this year Malang is now growing quickly. Many new office buildings and supermarkets have sprung up on major roads and this year Malang Town Square will become the latest addition to growing list of superstores in the city.

Real estate developers are also turning land plots into high-brow housing complexes.

But as the development continues, infrastructure in the area has not followed pace, with many sections of roads in the city remaining un-widened. Locals say the traffic congestion in certain parts of the city, particularly during peak hours, is now bad.

Industrialization, too, is on the increase in Malang. The city listed 179 medium-size businesses (with 20 to 99 workers) in 2003, up from 169 in 2001. Large-scale businesses (with over 100 workers) last year totaled 41, as against 49 in 2001 and this year it is expected to increase.

Manufacturers include food and beverage makers, chemical and chemical processors, equipment and cigarette-production industries – and they are doing well.

In 2000, the income of medium-scale businesses amounted to Rp 222.112 million, which rose in 2001 to Rp 273.248 million. Earning of large firms increased from Rp 4.279 billion in 2000 to Rp 5.4 billion in 2001.

Sailendra said despite the intensified industrialization, all companies operating in the area possessed environmental licenses and the likelihood of their polluting the city's outskirts was slim.

However, reports show many firms have violated the rules, prompting the board to keep monitoring pollution-prone businesses like chemicals producers, hospitals and restaurants. Action needed to restore past glories To restore Bromo and Malang to their former state, Herry said all parties – both the government and the state needed to be willing to act.

Sadly, he said, the lack of coordination and understanding of the issues has persisted. An example was the regional administration going ahead with a motocross program in 2002 that had damaged Mount Bromo, a project which was against the wishes of the national park management, he said.

To reduce traffic congestion in Malang, the municipality is preparing a commuter train project for next year, which is now being deliberated by the House of Representatives.

The city has proposed a budget of Rp 16 billion to operate the train. Surabaya has operated a similar system since early this year, however the rate of traffic congestion in Surabaya has not yet decreased.

But while Malang is transformed, many say for the worse, visits by foreign tourists to the city have continued to rise.

The municipal immigration office showed the number of short stays increased in number from 7,957 in 2002 to 8,527 last year.

Of the total, tourists from southeast Asia made the greatest proportion of visits to the city.