Share
September 17, 2021 Today, two months after the COP26 summit, a historic ruling arrives from Indonesia: in a lawsuit filed by 32 citizens, President Joko Widodo, three ministers and three provincial governors have been found guilty of "failure to comply with regulations on air pollution". The sentence read by Judge Saifuddin Zuhri, highlighted that "the defendants have committed an illegal act, therefore they will have to strengthen national air quality standards so that they can protect health, the environment and ecosystems, with tools based on science and technology".
Central Jakarta's district court ruled with a three-to-zero vote in favor of the group of 32 residents who filed a complaint in July 2019 against President Widodo, three of his ministers - Home Affairs, Health and Environment - and the governors of Jakarta, Banten and West Java. The authorities were denounced by activists, public figures, taxi drivers, motorcycle taxi owners, people suffering from diseases caused by pollution. None of them demanded financial compensation, but stricter supervision and penalties for polluters.
Jakarta has 10 million residents and another 30 million live in its metropolitan area. According to a recent study on air quality, it was found that in the Indonesian capital the levels of air pollution often exceed those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) by four or five times. Jakarta is the model of the Asian megalopolis: in addition to air pollution, also that of rivers, the contamination of the groundwater that supplies the city while road congestion costs the economy 6.5 billion dollars a year.