Through the Haze, Indonesians Peddle Hope of a Pollution-free Future

Ari Sufosa is a rarity in Jakarta. For this interior designer is one of the handful of the Indonesian capital's 12 million residents who braves the heat, humidity, traffic jams and all-engulfing pollution to cycle to work. "I'm lucky though," he says. "My office is only a kilometre or so from home, I go via back roads and so avoid the really nasty buses. And I can shower at the office if I need to."

Many others, like Budi Harapan, are less fortunate. He pedals around south Jakarta every day hawking meatball and noodle soup from wooden paniers attached to the back of his bicycle.

"Hardly a day goes by when I'm not knocked by cars or motorbikes," he says. "Sometimes I even fall off. And then there are all the fumes from the vehicles. The buses and trucks are particularly bad."

Such tales will become a thing of the past if an alliance of non-governmental organisations, the city's administration and the environment ministry gets its way. These groups, who are usually not the most comfortable of bedfellows, are campaigning to clean up Jakarta and get more people on bicycles, or at least out of their cars.

This week is the climax of their annual campaign, which hitches a lift with the global Car Free Day movement.

Initiated five years ago to commemorate the centennial of the death of Henry Bliss, the first recorded motor vehicle fatality, Car Free Day seeks to get people out of their petrol-guzzling vehicles and into environmentally sustainable transport.

The day itself, on Wednesday, was marked in Jakarta by a cycle convoy down central Jakarta's busiest thoroughfare, but the main events will be held tomorrow.

The same road will be closed to traffic from 6am to 3pm and many awareness-raising events will be staged.

"By having Car Free Day on a Sunday it will hopefully become a family event," said Wiwi Kurniawati of the Clean Emissions Partnership, one of the organisers. "It's very hard to change adults' attitudes so we have to target children."

The scale of the problem is enough to put anyone off visiting Jakarta, let alone living in the city. Last year residents experienced only 25 days of "good" air quality, while the most recent survey on the economic and health impacts of Jakarta's pollution reckons the smog - 70% of which comes from vehicle emissions - results in 1,840 otherwise avoidable deaths and health costs of £123m a year.

The bad news is that this study is 14 years old and it is universally agreed that the situation has deteriorated.

"The traffic is getting worse and worse," said Bahariyani of the Indonesian Environment Forum. "What's being chucked out of vehicles is so bad. But people don't feel comfortable or safe riding the buses, so they prefer to spend hours in their cars."

Ms Wiwi and her fellow campaigners admit they are fighting an uphill battle, but say they have to start somewhere. "This is the third time we've had a Car Free Day in Jakarta and it's getting bigger every year," she said. "Eventually we want to make it a monthly event and have it on a working day."

Experts say significant change will only happen when viable alternatives exist, the commuters' patience snaps, and residents embrace the country's growing democratisation to demand change.

"You've got to build up the constituencies," said Josef Leitmann, an environmental specialist at the World Bank. "And you've got to get famous and respected people to build the pressure. Otherwise it will take a disaster to precipitate action and we don't want that."

In the meantime, Messrs Sufosa and Harapan will continue to pedal their lonely paths though the polluted and clogged streets.