Illustrative image (Photo: AFP/VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesiancapital city of Jakarta on August 7 announced new regulations to curb privatecars as it moves to rein in choking airpollution.
The city has more than 10 million residents, but about three times that numberlive in surrounding towns, swelling emissions from vehicles, factories andpower stations.
In the current dry season, Jakarta has consistently ranked among the world’smost polluted cities, based on data from Air Visual, a Swiss-based group thatmonitors air quality.
In 2016, the municipal government ordered curbs on private cars governed bywhether their license-plate numbers were odd or even, to reduce traffic jams onmain thoroughfares. That effort was widened last year, ahead of the AsianGames.
On August 7, it said this policy would be extended again to cover smallerroads.
This move comes after an instruction last week by Jakarta Governor AniesBaswedan to levy congestion charges on cars from 2020, set an age limit of 10years on vehicles on the road by 2025, tighten emission tests and rein inindustrial discharges.
However, experts said the governor needed to do more.
All the steps taken will in themselves improve the air quality, but the overallimpact will not be big because they are not addressing the main problem, said Almo Pradana, senior manager for energyand climate at the World Resources Institute Indonesia.
Pradana added that Jakarta did not have enough monitoring devices to pinpointthe cause of the pollution spikes.
He stressed the need to find what makes the air quality worsen, how much inpercentages comes from transportation, and when, and how much comes from coalpower plants and factories.
Some environmental groups have sued authorities over Jakarta’s worsening airquality, trying to force the government to investigate the source of emissions.-VNA
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