In the News
August 25, 2023
Jakarta and its surrounding cities are shrouded in thick smog this month, and even Indonesian President Joko Widodo, commonly referred to as Jokowi, appears to be no match for the haze, having dealt with a stubborn cough for four weeks that some say may be caused by the bad air.
“He has never felt like this,” Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno told reporters on Monday, adding that the President’s doctor pointed to the poor air quality as a potential contributor to his ailment.
There has long been concern, both at home and abroad, about the city’s smog problem, which, in recent weeks, has been more apparent than ever: Jakarta has been lingering near the top of world pollution rankings since May, and the capital was listed as the world’s most polluted city for several days last week, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAir…
…In 2021, a landmark court ruling sparked optimism from environmental campaigners that authorities would finally set out to tackle Jakarta’s air pollution, after 32 residents living in and around the city won a lawsuit filed in 2019 against Jokowi and six other top-ranking officials. After ruling that authorities were negligent in ensuring citizens’ rights to clean air, the court ordered the national and city governments to tighten Jakarta’s regulations on air quality standards and come up with a plan to minimize air pollution.
Since the legal victory, however, activists say there has been little progress on the court orders. The national government initially responded to the ruling with an appeal, which was rejected last year. And while Jakarta authorities have vowed to implement emission tests on vehicles and come up with an air pollution control strategy, Elisa Sutanudjaja, one of the plaintiffs in the 2019 lawsuit and the executive director of the Rujak Center for Urban Studies in Jakarta, tells TIME that the measures are too little and too slow. Residents are expected to lose 5.5 years of life expectancy, according to the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index, due to the air quality falling short of WHO guidelines.