“The air is breathable…”
This is the first thing 31-year-old Stella Alverina noticed when she moved to Ireland from Indonesia in 2019. As a native of Bandung, a two-hour ride from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, Stella was used to heat and air pollution, brought about by vehicle emissions and her neighborhood’s routine act of burning trash.
“Pollution in Indonesia is really, really high, to the point that everybody needs to wear a mask especially if you’re riding a motorcycle or walking out on the streets,” Stella said.
The tech executive, who splits her time between Indonesia and Ireland, stated that she would avoid going out in the streets whenever she is back home.
Stella’s friends who live in mining villages have it worse. They never go out without protective covering—masks, scarves, umbrellas, etc.—for fear of catching lung-related diseases or even cancer. In the past few years, she also noticed people’s immunity weakening.
“They have allergies to dust and then they can’t really go out and do much, so they always have to go out with sunglasses, big masks… And only when we go out of the country do we feel like we can live as normal people,” Stella shared, explaining that the difference in the air quality and environment is quite stark.
In the western part of the Borneo island is a small city called Pontianak, where the equator line passes. This is where Fithriyyah Iskandar, a medical doctor & environment youth activist, lives, who had experienced chronic cough due to the annual fires.