Jakarta's Air Quality Is Again The Worst In The World, Walhi: No Serious Efforts To Reduce Pollution

JAKARTA - In the last few days, the air quality in Jakarta has been ranked as the worst in the world according to IQ Air's observations. Jakarta's position as the most polluted city occurred this morning; Monday, June 20; Friday, June 17; and Wednesday, June 15.

Based on the BMKG analysis, the unhealthy air in Jakarta is influenced by various emission sources, both from local sources, such as transportation and residential areas, as well as from regional sources from industrial areas close to Jakarta.

In response to this, the Executive Director of the Jakarta Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Suci Fitria Tanjung views that the government has not been serious in controlling air pollution in the capital city.

In fact, the Central Jakarta District Court has issued a decision that the state committed an unlawful act that resulted in environmental damage and pollution in Jakarta on September 16, 2021.

"There has been no serious and effective effort to reduce air pollution, including seeing how the contribution of emissions or pollution that comes out of motorized vehicles or comes from industry," Suci said when contacted by VOI, Tuesday, June 21.

Suci also asked the government not to use the excuse that the pandemic condition had decreased and the mobility of people had returned to increase due to poor air quality.

"We cannot blame the pandemic situation, which has improved and people have started their activities as usual. Because, in the last few years, our observations have shown that the air quality in Jakarta still exceeds the national air quality standard," he stressed.

In fact, the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, has initiated the Jakarta Langit Biru program as an effort to improve air quality. This program is stated in the DKI Governor's Instruction Number 66 of 2019 concerning Air Quality Control.

However, Suci said the poor air quality is a sign that the DKI Provincial Government needs to evaluate their policies. One of them is the emission test which has been tested since January 2021.

In the implementation of the trial, officers checked the vehicles that passed on 24 roads by measuring the exhaust gases of motorized vehicles. Vehicles that have carried out emission tests and are declared to have passed will be asked to continue their journey. If you do not pass, you will be given a warning.

For this, Suci urges the government to immediately complete the trial period and immediately take action in the form of fines for vehicles that do not pass the emission test. Because, it turns out that vehicles that have passed emission tests are currently still very minimal.

"Emission tests should be encouraged to accelerate the ticketing. There must be strict legal action. So, people feel obliged to carry out emission tests," he said.