The people of Jakarta are awaiting the notable verdict to fight | | Natural Issues

Medan, Indonesia – Teacher Istu Prayogi has been in the 1990s becoming the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, all the while beating his nose, headache and shortness of breath.

It turned out that the problem was all around her, and she was not the only one who was suffering.

“They found me in my lungs due to air pollution,” Istu, a teacher at Nusantara Jaya Tourism Academy, told Al Jazeera.

“The government has not paid attention to the air crisis in Indonesia.”

Now, Istu who moved to a satellite in Depok city outside Jakarta is one of the 32 complainants “civil case” The aim is to make the government fail to fulfill the Indonesian citizens’ right to clean air.

The Jakarta High Court will deliver its verdict in the case on June 10, after almost two years of legal dispute over who is responsible for the city’s most heinous crime, according to international guidelines.

In 2019, a study conducted by Vital Strategies and Bandung Institute of Technology (BIT) found that Indonesia had the highest number of premature deaths due to air pollution in Southeast Asia. The report also found that, in Jakarta, “the quantity of quality products (PM 2.5), the highest risk of health hazards, is often higher than that provided by the World Health Organization four or five times as much”.

As part of the Citizens’ Legal Processes – the legal basis for civil society to file lawsuits and environmental issues – plaintiffs do not ask for bribes but hope that cases should raise public awareness of Jakarta’s air pollution crisis and pressure the government to take action. .

The suit will elect the President of Indonesia, the Minister of Environment and Forestry, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Governor of Jakarta and the Governor of Banten and West Java.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs have asked the presiding judges to declare that their opponents are violating their right to a healthy lifestyle and ordering them to tighten international standards.

“We want stricter laws and more stringent laws on air pollution,” Leonard Simanjuntak, director of the Greenpeace Indonesia, who is also a civil defendant, told Al Jazeera.

A human rights issue

More than 10 million people live in Jakarta, but that number is more than 30 million once in five satellite cities and surrounding areas – thousands of industrial and industrial centers – are being included.

“This case is very important because we already know that breathing is our right as human beings,” Bondan Andriyanu, a climate and energy advocate at Greenpeace Indonesia, told Al Jazeera.

“Today’s air pollution violates the rights to life and health, the right of the child and the right to a safe, clean, healthy and secure environment. The concept of human rights changes everything because the government has the necessary, legally recognized rights to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. of people [of the citizens]. ”

Greenpeace activists are protesting against the government’s decision to reduce air pollution in Jakarta, Ministry of Health in Jakarta, Indonesia in September 2017 [File: Tatan Syuflana/AP Photo]

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2016, air pollution (around the world) is expected to kill 4.2 million premature people worldwide, 91% of which occurred in low- and middle-income countries, where most such deaths occur in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific regions of WHO.

The WHO average annual air quality is 10 micrograms of microscopic particles per cubic meter of air, while the Indonesian standard is 15 micrograms.

But Bondan says the official report on the best of both worlds, PM2.5, received by Greenpeace from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) since 2020 – the year the coronavirus was declared to have reduced traffic congestion in a few months – showed 28.6 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

“When we compare our global environment with clean air to the WHO standard we are left behind. Even during the epidemic, the annual increase of 2.5 PM in Jakarta was above the national average, “he said.

‘My son does not like to go out and play’

Elisa Sutanudjaja, director of the Rujak Center for Urban Study in Jakarta, also participated.

She told Al Jazeera that she had noticed air pollution in Jakarta during pregnancy and her fears about air pollution were increasing over time.

“As the parent of a 10-year-old girl we often like to drive in Jakarta or walk,” she told Al Jazeera. “But we realized that we could not enjoy our travels because of the pollution, especially because of the car smoke. Nowadays, my son does not like to go out to play. ”

According to a 2019 report by Vital Strategies and Bandung Institute of Technology (BIT), where BIT experts took samples from three locations around Jakarta during the rainy and dry season, the cause of the city’s pollution comes from car, secondary aerosols such as ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate, construction activities, combustion of biomass and other fuels, street dust, suspended salt, mineral salts and coal combustion.

“Indonesia’s regulatory system and its air conditioning are lightweight,” Leonardpe told Greenpeace. “There are coal-fired power plants all over Jakarta and, if we can do the math, then the air goes into the city.”

Air quality has not changed since the case was filed two years ago. This photo shows the shape of Jakarta last month with its high offices and condoms covered with smoke [Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters]

In addition to tightening the rules on carbon dioxide, the plaintiffs in the case also expect the government to reconsider all its urban options in the city.

“The central government, through the Ministry of Labor, will continue to insist on the construction of toll roads even though government vehicles are the main culprits in air pollution,” Elisa said. “I believe that through this case, there has been an established mechanism for the development of sustainable development strategies and mechanisms.”

“As long as the type of development is still advanced, there will be no major changes.”

For their part, the freedom fighters have rejected the notion that they are guilty of air pollution in Jakarta.

“The perpetrators of these cases have also contributed to the decline in air quality,” Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, known as Defendant V in civil cases, told reporters in 2019.

“Unless anyone rode a bicycle, it would have been different. Not only is there air for one or two jobs, but it is for all of us, including those who have filed a lawsuit.”