Aither Indonesia’s Post

My family and I fell sick after our recent trip to #Jakarta.   1. Our initial symptoms seemed innocuous enough. Mom and Sis were the first to complain of mild throat irritation, which developed, over the course of last week, into a phlegmy cough and fever. 81 year-old Second Aunt caught a fever towards the end of the trip, and 76 year-old Third Aunt a cough. I held up pretty well until yesterday, when a mild cough I'd been nursing all week became a full-blown cough and quite severe body aches.   2. We have all tested negative for COVID-19 so it's not the coronavirus. As such, we think there is a pretty good chance we are suffering from the effects of the air pollution in Jakarta, now named the world's most polluted city by IQAir: First in Air Quality. My family is not alone in our experience - many Jakartan friends have complained of respiratory problems recently. Air purifier sales in the Indonesian capital have gone through the roof.   3. In 2019, the UN Environment Programme published an Air Pollution Note that reported that 106,710 deaths in #Indonesia were caused by fine particle pollution. That's more than the next three biggest Southeast Asian countries – Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines – put together. That number will have increased significantly since. Air pollution is now one of the top five causes of death in Indonesia.   4. The GAHP (Global Alliance on Health and Pollution) published a Pollution and Health Metrics report that attributed 123,753 deaths in 2019 to air pollution. These numbers are staggering. To give you some perspective of how many people we are talking about, the seating capacity of the Gelora Bung Karno stadium – the largest stadium in Indonesia and eighth largest association stadium in Asia – is only 77,193. If Indonesia's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia were to pack every one of its planes, the number of people in Indonesia who die from air pollution related deaths every year would fill every seat in every plane seven times over.   5. When I spoke at a dialogue on sustainability and innovation in Jakarta last month, one of the delegates asked if I was relieved to be returning to #Singapore where, he thought, I would enjoy much better air quality. Hardly! I said. Air pollution does not respect national borders. It is something that affects everyone, as we can see from recent reports of transboundary haze returning to Singapore and #Malaysia.   We're not in this alone so what, I wonder, can we do as good neighbours to help one another tackle our respective air pollution problems?   I have included, in the comments, links to the UNEP Air Pollution Note, as well as a selection of articles on the topic by CNA, The Jakarta Post, Reuters, The Straits Times, and PT Tempo Inti Media Tbk.   Photo of the Jakarta skyline, taken by Simon Ng and used with his permission.   All comments welcome.