Vehicles, factories, and power plants discharge harmful gases and small particles which can penetrate into human respiratory system. In fact, air pollution does not respect national borders whatsoever. Heavy metals and other hazardous particles are carried by winds, contaminating water and soil far from their origin. Forest fires, mainly in Indonesia, caused a haze of smoke to hang for months over neighbouring countries. It causes schools are forced to close, meanwhile local hospitals reported large numbers of haze-related illnesses in the people. Properly speaking, air pollution is really a serious problem. Even, United Nation has now emerged it as silent killer.

 

In 2014, Indonesia ranks 112nd (out of 178 countries) at the Environmnetal Performance Index for Air Quality. There are five big cities in Indonesia which are categorized as highly polluted cities. They are Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Makassar, and Palangkaraya. Denpasar, where I am living is considered having lower air pollution but still, the pollution is growing. Official figures show that the amounts of major, toxic pollutants invading Jakarta and other cities air have grown rapidly, along with the continuous increase in vehicles crowding the streets. In Surabaya and Palangkaraya, the polluting gases are spewed out by factories and power plant. Along with the alarming growth in vehicles numbers, the concentration carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead and suspended particles in the air have been increasing as well, according to the city?s Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD).

Vehicles and factories are not the only air pollution emitter. Forest fire also has big contribution for it. Since 1990, forest fires in Indonesia have been causing a haze of smoke to hang for months over neighbouring countries. In early March 2014, forest and peat fires in Indonesia's Riau province, on the island of Sumatra, spiked to levels not seen. The fires are extensive in areas with deep peat soils, suggesting high volumes of carbon are being released, contributing to climate change. Global Forest Watch reported last week and in an ongoing series that clearing land for agriculture is the major direct cause of the fires. According to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, the fire alerts in Sumatra fall within land managed by palm oil, pulpwood, and logging concessions,

 

The government has established various policies, systems and corporation to tackle air pollution. Good public transportation is built in big cities to reduce the amount of vehicles used. Car Free Day is held every Sunday in several big cities to reduce car emission. I guess that you have that kind of day in your country as well. Reflecting all effort done by government, but still, we cannot rely upon government. We need to do something, at least to deal with this issue in our local area.

 

Young people in Indonesia really aware with air pollution and they do not want to suffer in it anymore Therefore, various youth communities and organization have been holding various activities to raise air pollution awareness in society. For instance, various youth and student organization create online petition and campaign to deal with air pollution. In Bali for example, all member of ?Gowes? community in Bali ride their bicycle on Sunday in Denpasar and other region to persuade people to ride bicycle instead of motorbike and car for going to school, work, or vacation. Sobat Bumi and Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia often doing re-plantation project to raise number of carbon absorber (trees) in Bali. Further, Earth Hour Denpasar held BeliYangBaik (buying the good one) campaign in southern Bali last Sunday to engage people to be green consumer. As I mentioned above, forest fire is managed by by palm oil, pulpwood, and logging concessions thus they introduce people with eco-labels, such as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). I took part in this campaign. I explained that If people want to buy forest products, like tissue and paper, they need to chose those with FSC labels. And If they want to buy palm oil product, like cooking oil, chocolates, shampoo, etc, they need to choose those with RSPO labels. These labels indicate that the factories support forest management that respects people and nature. In other world, you choose factories that produce products sustainably, without destroying natural forest without burning the forest to open the land.

 

Source:

http://www.who.int/ceh/publications/en/11airpollution.pdf

 

http://aqicn.org/country/indonesia/