June 24, 2024
JAKARTA – As Jakarta counts its days as the national capital, it is gearing up to celebrate its 497th anniversary on Saturday as though it will forever be the center of the country’s marvels, never mind problems, with residents expecting some improvements to the city’s perennial issues, from choking air pollution to infamous traffic.
This year’s anniversary celebrations are expected to be another gloomy one, as Jakarta has been shrouded by thin, gray smog for the past week, ranking it among the world’s most polluted cities on the list of Swiss air quality technology company IQAir.
For days, Jakarta has averaged an “unhealthy” level of 158 on the Air Quality Index (AQI), with PM2.5 fine particulate matter reaching a concentration 13 times higher than the safe threshold under the global air quality guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The bad air quality has persisted since last year, with authorities scrambling to come up with various measures to clean the city’s air, from mandating vehicle emission tests to producing more rain through cloud seeding.
Now it’s 2024 and nothing has really changed for Jakartans, such as Siti Kuswatun and her 4-year-old son, who have been frequently ill with respiratory infections over the past 12 months due to the poor quality of the city’s air.
“We often experience coughing and flu-like symptoms that immediately disappear when we travel out of the city,” the 29-year-old homemaker from South Jakarta told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
“As a mother, Jakarta’s air pollution is really concerning,” she added.
The Jakarta Health Agency estimated that severe air pollution had contributed to 100,000 cases of acute respiratory infections each month in 2023.
Another study published last year pointed to air pollution as the cause of more than 10,000 deaths and 5,000 hospitalizations for heart and lung-related illnesses in Jakarta per annum, as well as more than 7,000 cases of adverse health effects in children, from stunting to newborn deaths.
Authorities have blamed emissions from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, which continue to grow in number each year and are also the cause of the notorious traffic congestion that keeps Jakartans on the city’s roads for longer.
A new hope?
Despite the lack of progress over the years in solving the city’s pollution and traffic snarls, Yassriani Almatthushyva, a 22-year-old office worker from West Jakarta, sees a glimmer of hope: Relocating the nation’s capital to East Kalimantan might help authorities tackle Jakarta’s poor air quality and other persistent issues.
“Jakarta has a lot of urban problems caused by its high population density,” Yassriani said.
“Moving the capital could help alleviate some of the city’s burden, and I hope authorities will finally be able to address the city’s traffic [congestion], air pollution and poor sidewalks afterward,” she continued.
With nearly 11 million people, Jakarta is the country’s most densely populated region, and the number of inhabitants in the city and surrounding areas are growing by up to 250,000 people each year. Studies suggest that Jakarta could become the world’s most populous city by 2030 with over 38 million people.
In order to reduce Jakarta’s urban burdens, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo vowed to move the capital.
To realize this major undertaking, the House of Representatives and the government enacted Law No. 2/2024 on the Jakarta Special Region to transfer the status of national capital to the newly rising city of Nusantara in East Kalimantan.
The law also contains provisions on new measures to tackle the various issues afflicting Jakarta, including the formation of an agglomeration council to coordinate and oversee urban development projects across Greater Jakarta.
The council is to help city authorities solve transboundary issues such as traffic and waste management, which requires the cooperation of all administrations in the regions that make up Greater Jakarta, according to Home Minister Tito Karnavian.
The new law also limits the age of vehicles operating in Jakarta and the number of private vehicles in an effort to reduce the amount of pollution-inducing vehicle emissions.
Problems remain
But experts are skeptical that moving the capital elsewhere can solve the complex issues plaguing Jakarta.
“As long as Jakarta is still the center of economy, business and industry, moving the [seat of government] to a new city won’t significantly reduce Jakarta’s burden,” said Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planner at Trisakti University, adding that newcomers would continue to arrive.
In 2023 alone, nearly 47,000 people migrated to Jakarta, according to the local civil registration agency, slightly lower than almost 53,000 new migrants in 2022.
Henny Warsilah, principal researcher at the Research Center for Society and Culture of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), concurs.
“Moving the capital won’t solve the issue,” said Henny, noting that relocating the nation’s capital might reduce Jakarta’s traffic but not enough to clear the air or prevent flooding.
Meanwhile, Wicaksono Sarosa of the Urban and Regional Development Institute has doubts about whether the planned agglomeration council will have the authority to make significant changes to urban planning in Jakarta’s satellite cities.
“It will be difficult for the [councilors] to enact their policies because they don’t have as much authority as regional leaders,” said Wicaksono.
“It would be much more effective to [combine] Jakarta and its satellite cities as a single administrative region.”