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A woman wore a mask with the words “Clean Air?” at a hearing of a citizen lawsuit against air pollution in Jakarta. Photo: Reuters
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Jakarta named world’s most polluted city, as Indonesian residents worry about health risks

  • Jakarta has consistently ranked among the 10 most polluted cities globally since May, according to data from a Swiss firm
  • Local residents have long complained about the health risks from toxic air while President Joko Widodo has pledged firm action to deal with the problem
Indonesia
Reuters
Agence France-Presse
ReutersandAgence France-Presse
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Indonesia’s capital Jakarta topped the list as the world’s most polluted city on Wednesday, having consistently ranked among the 10 most polluted cities globally since May, according to data by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.

Jakarta, which has a population of more than 10 million, registers unhealthy air pollution levels nearly every day, according to IQAir.

It has regularly recorded “unhealthy” levels for concentration of tiny particles known as PM2.5, which can penetrate airways to cause respiratory problems, many times the World Health Organization’s recommended levels.

Resident Rizky Putra lamented that the worsening air quality was putting his children’s health at risk.

“I think the situation is very worrying,” Rizky, 35, said by the side of a road in downtown Jakarta.

“So many children are sick with the same complaints and symptoms such as coughs and cold,” he said.

A general view of buildings as smog covers the capital city of Jakarta, Indonesia in 2019. Photo: Antara Foto via Reuters
Air pollution is estimated to contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year and is considered by the United Nations to be the single biggest environmental health risk.

Jakarta residents have long complained of toxic air from chronic traffic, industrial smoke and coal-fired power plants. Some of them launched and won a civil lawsuit in 2021 demanding the government take action to control air pollution.

The court at the time ruled President Joko Widodo must establish national air quality standards to protect human health, and the health minister and Jakarta governor must devise strategies to control air pollution.

Still, Nathan Roestandy, co-founder of air quality app Nafas Indonesia, said the pollution level has continued to deteriorate.

“We take more than 20,000 breaths a day. If we take in polluted air everyday, [it could lead to] respiratory and pulmonary diseases, even asthma. It can affect cognitive development of children or even mental health,” he said.

Asked about Jakarta’s pollution problem on Tuesday, President Widodo told reporters the solution would be to move the country’s capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara, which his government is currently building from the ground up on Borneo island.

Indonesia is set to name Nusantara as the new capital next year and at least 16,000 civil servants, military and police are due to move there.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C) riding on Jakarta’s new light rail transit (LRT) on August 3, 2023. Photo: AFP

Widodo also said a planned metro train network across Jakarta “must be finished” to reduce pollution.

Indonesia has pledged to stop building new coal-fired power plants from 2023 and to be carbon neutral by 2050.

But despite an outcry from activists, the government is expanding the enormous Suralaya coal plant on Java island, one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.

According to Greenpeace Indonesia, 10 coal-fired power plants are operating within a 100-kilometre (62 miles) radius of the capital.

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