The ministry's Director General of Pollution Control and Environmental Damage, Sigit Reliantoro, said that a study on the contribution of the transportation sector to air pollution in Jabodetabek is being conducted.
"The provisional result shows that if we focus on improving emissions standards for trucks and heavy vehicles, the cost will be much lower than converting all vehicles to electric," he told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
He said that improving truck emissions would help reduce more particulate matter from the air compared to changing conventional buses to electric buses.
Reliantoro said that the study is still ongoing and will help form a complete picture of the sources of pollution in Jabodetabek. The study is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Regarding the current pollution levels in Jabodetabek, he said that the condition is not as severe as last year.
The rainfall in recent weeks has helped clean the air, he added. For this reason, the ministry has discussed using weather modification technology (TMC) with the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to help tackle air pollution.
"Recently, we had a discussion with the BMKG's TMC team. If the pollution continues to be at an unhealthy level for a week, we will ask them for a weather modification," Reliantoro said.
Earlier, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said that rain induced by weather modification technology has been found effective in lowering the index of air pollutants in Jabodetabek.
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Translator: Prisca V, Kenzu
Editor: Anton Santoso
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