Indonesian president's struggle with cough highlights Jakarta's severe air pollution crisis
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Last week on Friday, the Indonesian authorities on Friday blamed the city's traffic-clogged pollution spike on weather patterns and vehicle emissions
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has been struggling with cough for several weeks, which could be because of the worsening air pollution in the city. This came just a few days after the Swiss company IQAir released data showing that Jakarta's air quality had deteriorated in recent weeks. It has apparently become the worst in the world.
After a parliamentary meeting between ministers in Jakarta, Indonesia's Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, told reporters on Monday: "President Joko Widodo has asked that there be concrete steps (to tackle air pollution) within one week."
"He has been coughing for almost four weeks and said he has never felt this way," Uno added.
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A report by CNN cited Uno as saying that physicians were still determining the source of Widodo's cough but added that it might be connected to the deteriorating air quality.
The CNN report also mentioned that Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that Widodo was battling a cough.
Sadikin also said that his ministry was increasing tests in the general public to determine whether lung and respiratory illnesses like asthma had become more prevalent in extremely polluted locations.
Last week on Friday, the Indonesian authorities blamed the city's traffic-clogged pollution spike on weather patterns and vehicle emissions.
In Jakarta and its surroundings, the airborne concentration of tiny particles known as PM2.5 has outpaced other heavily polluted cities such as Riyadh, Doha and Lahore of late. The mentioned region has about 30 million people.
Activists have blamed groups of factories and coal-fired power plants in the vicinity of the city for the high amounts of poisonous haze. Greenpeace Indonesia said that there are 10 such facilities within a 100-kilometre radius.
(With inputs from agencies)
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