TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Speaker of the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD) Prasetio Edi Marsudi requested the city’s governor, Anies Baswedan, to quickly commence artificial rain over the capital in desperation to reduce the ever-increasing pollution problem in Jakarta.

“It must be done soon. This is getting worse. I call for the governor to initiate the plan to create artificial rain,” said Prasetio at the House of Representatives (DPR) headquarters in central Jakarta.

The PDIP politician says he agrees with the artificial rain proposed by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), which saw the weather in Indonesia’s capital modified in between July 10^th - July 15 to improve the city’s air quality.

Creating artificial rain is believes to be able to reduce Jakarta’s pollution levels, even though BPPT cannot guarantee how much it would improve the situation. Artificial rains such as the one discussed by Jakarta Administration were applied in numerous other cities such as Thailand, China, South Korea, and India.

Interestingly, Governor Anies Baswedan once requested the BPPT to do the same on July 10-July 15 before the school holidays end. However, the plan has since never been heard again especially after it was criticized by Greenpeace.

LANI DIANA WIJAYA