Vehicle Gas Emissions - A View to an Environmentally Sustainable Future

A rapidly expanding population will continue to place extraordinary pressures on the Government and its agencies to provide sustainable economic and social development in the future. This has been recognized in the development of bus corridors and the monorail in Jakarta where the ultimate emphasis is decreasing the reliance of citizens on private transportation by providing a viable and workable public transportation alternative. Nevertheless, until such time as these alternatives become viable and practical, people will continue to use their own private vehicles. A quick scan of the horizon will provide a lay persons view of the amount of exhaust emission pollution that forms a perpetual haze of the greater Jakarta metropolitan area.

The Minister of the Environment has issued a Regulation, No. 5 of 2006, which endeavors to control the ever-increasing exhaust emissions plaguing the city. Although it is not explicitly stated in the Regulation there is also an underlying understanding that increased levels of air pollution bring with it an increased likelihood of respiratory illnesses and increasing health costs to the community at large.