Jakarta (VNA) – Air quality in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta dropped to a “poor” level on the morning of March 31 as residents resumed normal activities and traffic returned to its usual pace following the long Eid al-Fitr holiday, according to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Indonesia.
Data from the IQAir air-quality monitoring application at 6:30 a.m. showed that Jakarta ranked 10th among the cities with the worst air quality in the world.
The city recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 127, with PM2.5 concentration reaching 46 micrograms per cubic metre. This pollution level poses potential health risks to people, sensitive animal groups and may also negatively affect plants.
Health experts have advised residents to take precautions, including wearing masks when engaging in outdoor activities.
The main cause of the temporary decline in air quality was severe traffic congestion on the first working day after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
On Jalan Basuki Rachmat, a key arterial road in East Jakarta leading toward South Jakarta, hundreds of private cars and motorbikes were seen lining up in heavy traffic early in the morning.
Congestion worsened due to a surge of vehicles travelling from the satellite city of Bekasi toward major office complexes in Tebet and Mega Kuningan, a common commuting route for workers living in suburban areas.
At the same time, New Delhi (India) ranked as the world’s most polluted city with an AQI of 198, followed by Chiang Mai (Thailand) with 190, Kinshasa (DR Congo) with 177, Kathmandu (Nepal) with 166, and Tashkent (Uzbekistan) with 163.
To manage air pollution, the Jakarta Environment Agency (DLH) is currently operating an integrated air-quality monitoring platform that collects real-time data from 31 monitoring stations across the metropolitan area, combined with data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) and international organisations./.
