How Can Citizens Identify Clean Air Amidst Poor Air Quality?

Poor air quality remains a prominent issue for Indonesian society.

Jakarta, Indonesia, ranked third globally for worst air quality according to IQAir, with a score of 125, deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups. This data was obtained in real-time on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at 6:49 PM WIB.

Not only Jakarta, but several regions in Indonesia also recorded poor air quality. IQAir data also shows several cities in West Kalimantan, West Java, and Banten topping the list of areas with the worst air quality today.

So, how can Indonesian citizens identify clean air amidst the current poor air quality?

Based on a survey by the Kurious-Katadata Insight Center (KIC), the most common method is feeling that the inhaled air is fresh. This option accounted for 84.4% of total respondents.

Next, seeing a blue or clear sky, chosen by 58.8% of respondents.

However, the most accurate or measurable method, using monitoring applications and devices, was not widely chosen by respondents.

Monitoring air quality through monitoring applications was chosen by 32% of respondents. Meanwhile, using home-installed monitoring sensors was chosen by 17% of respondents.

Other options were chosen by 3.5% of respondents, while 1.2% answered "don't know."

The Kurious-KIC survey involved 512 respondents from various regions of Indonesia, with 54.6% male respondents and 45.4% female respondents.

More than half of the respondents were from Java Island excluding Jakarta (62.5%), followed by respondents from Sumatra Island (14.6%) and DKI Jakarta (14.2%). The proportion of respondents from Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali-Nusa Tenggara, and Maluku-Papua ranged from 0.2% to 3.3%.

The majority of respondents were from the 25-34 age group (34.8%), followed by the 35-44 age group (29.9%) and the 45-54 age group (18.4%).

Data collection was conducted on August 21-22, 2023, using the computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) method with a margin of error of approximately 4.31% and a 95% confidence level.

(Also read: Many People Feel the Surrounding Air is Polluted by Dust and Vehicle Exhaust)