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The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry has just announced the establishment of a task force to control and monitor the increasingly serious air pollution situation in major cities such as Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.
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| Polluted smog covers the sky in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: AFP/TTXVN |
The plan to set up the task force came after Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar held a meeting on developing air pollution control measures, said Bambang Hendroyono, secretary-general of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
The director general of pollution control and environmental degradation at the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Sigit Reliantoro, said the establishment of the task force is also in line with President Joko Widodo's directive to monitor fossil fuel power plants and steam power plants (PLTU).
In addition, the agency will also assess pollution arising from PLTU operations and fossil fuels as well as open burning areas.
According to Mr. Sigit, the ministry's task force will also prepare a number of sanctions, ranging from administrative measures aimed at remediation to actions based on civil and criminal law.
The Indonesian government said last week that a spike in air pollution in Jakarta was due to a change in monsoon direction and increased traffic.
Indonesia's capital Jakarta became the world's most polluted city last week, according to Swiss air quality monitoring company IQAir. Jakarta and its surrounding areas form a megacity of about 30 million people, and PM2.5 levels far exceed those of other heavily polluted cities such as Riyadh, Doha and Lahore. The high levels of toxic smog are also due to clusters of coal-fired power plants near the city.
According to Greenpeace Indonesia, there are 10 such thermal power plants within a 100km radius of Jakarta and its vicinity.
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