by Piyaporn Hawiset
24 June 2003
Indonesians are paying a high price for rapid economic growth with increasing air, water and ground pollution, the World Bank said on June 24, 2003. The bank said in a report that fast growth in recent decades "has resulted in significant pollution, for which Indonesians are paying a high price in terms of human health and environmental degradation." Increasing urbanisation, vehicle use and industrialisation are worsening air pollution. More than six million new vehicles have come onto the streets in the five years to 2000. Annual dry-season forest and ground fires were also a major contributor to air pollution in Indonesia and neighbouring countries, the World Bank said.
Nearly 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of forest cover were burned in the 1997-98 fires which sent choking smoke haze over Indonesia and its Southeast Asian neighbours for months. Forest and ground fires are a recurring annual problem. Most are set by logging companys owned by the country's economic and political elite operating illegally in cahoots with corrupt government officials.
"Air quality in Indonesia is under threat, resulting in increased health problems and productivity losses," the report said.
It estimated that air pollution costs the economy at least 400 million dollars every year, mostly in health costs, with inflammation of the respiratory tract the sixth leading cause of death in Indonesia.
Indonesia, a tropical archipelago, receives abundant rainfall and has about six percent of the world's freshwater resources but its water quality is deteriorating and its water resources poorly managed.