Thousands of officials in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta have been told to work from home to help improve the city’s air quality.
Jakarta and surrounding cities comprise around 30 million people. The Indonesian Government took action after a concentration of airborne PM 2.5 particles were shown to have surpassed that of many heavily-polluted cities including Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Doha in Qatar and Lahore in Pakistan.
Public Servants’ switch to remote working will last two months as part of a trial, according to a Government notice.
The notice added that the decision would reduce traffic congestion in the city in time for the summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), to be held in Jakarta this week (September 5-to-7).
Half of the city’s 50,000 Public Servants will initially be expected to work from home until 21 October. This will increase to 75 per cent while the Summit is on.
Local environmental groups said the spike in urban pollution had been caused by factories and coal-fired power plants based near the capital. The Government dismissed these claims, insisting that the concentration of airborne particles was due to a combination of weather and traffic.
The Jakarta Local Government said the plan to move officials to remote working was temporary and could be ditched if deemed to be ineffective.
Jakarta, 27 August 2023
