Director of the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) of the University of Chicago, Kenneth Lee, said the average Indonesian people are estimated to lose 2.5 years of their life expectancy due to the current clean water crisis or air pollution. Indonesia's air quality does not meet the safe threshold, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for particulate matter (PM) concentrations, as much as 2.5.

"The high rate of air pollution will impact the life expectancy of the Indonesian population. Based on our 2021 report data, currently, more than 93 percent of Indonesia's 262 million people live in areas with an annual average of 2.5 particulate matter (PM) levels. That exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines," said Kenneth Lee during the AQLI collaboration webinar, Air Talk and Breath, Thursday (9/9/2021).

Ken said that based on data from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, the most significant health impacts due to air pollution are in Depok, Jakarta, and Bandung.

"In DKI Jakarta, the average person is estimated to lose 5.5 years of life expectancy if pollution levels like 2019 persist throughout their lives. In some areas, the decline in life expectancy is even greater, reaching more than six years of their life," Ken revealed in the webinar.

Meanwhile, the air quality in Bandung is worse than in Jakarta. If the pollution level in Bandung gets worse, the average life expectancy of people will decrease by 6.5 years.

However, he added that the Indonesian government has also started to take some initial steps to tackle this air pollution problem. For example, in 2017, the Indonesian government required all gasoline-fueled vehicles to adopt the Euro-4 fuel standard by September 2018. The Indonesian government has also stepped up efforts to combat air pollution from peatland and forest fires by imposing a moratorium on new peatland development and establishing a Restoration Agency Peat (Badan Restorasi Gambut).