Causes And Forms Of Environmental Pollution In Indonesia

With both a growing population and a booming industrial economy the country of Indonesia is experiencing rapidly growing pollution issues, including: mass deforestation, smog, water pollution, and various other forms of environmental destruction. As a poverty ridden nation lead by a government with too little resources at its disposal the issues of extreme pollution are often put on hold to other societal issues. In Indonesia, many forms of environmental pollution / destruction are not only affecting their population of well over a hundred million people, but also including the surrounding areas, these forms of pollution include: water, deforestation, and air.

In a recent analysis of Indonesia’s water problems, it was estimated …show more content…
With one in ten of all people in Indonesia suffering from some sort of respiratory infection (Sugiarto accessed 11/26/14), the issue of pollution is getting out of hand. The two main sources of air pollution in Indonesia are from deforestation and millions upon millions of CO2 emitting vehicles. The carbon dioxide released from these human activities often clouds visibility even on clear days and smog can often travel to surrounding countries including Singapore and Malaysia. It is estimated that between 70 – 80 percent of all of Indonesia’s air pollutants are from vehicles (Maulie 2014) and these figures are only going to grow as the number of total vehicles in Indonesia grow. Of all of the various issues facing Indonesia today, air pollutants are arguably the worse because of their adverse effect on people. Not only does air pollution cause 16,000 premature deaths a year in Indonesia alone (Sugiarto accessed 11/29/14) but in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta it has recently become the number one cause of death (Setiogi 2003). With Jakarta’s population growing at a substantial rate it is hard to imagine life or the environment in Jakarta getting any better. All of these alarming facts needs to trigger something in the minds of people living in these environments. There is no excuse, consideration for the environment has to become a priority. Fixing environmental destruction on such a large scale that Indonesia’s air pollution as caused is impossible, but we can slow it down. We all know that trees cleanse the air that we breathe and help clean up what pollutants we put into the air. So the first step in helping Indonesia’s air problem is to slow down deforestation and to plant more trees. Imagine if that for every tree cut down another one would be planted. Education on the subject of air pollution can help warn people