The Philippines' first electric-powered jeep (L) running on a test drive side by side with a traditional jeepney (R) during rush hour in the Makati financial district in Manila. The e-jeepneys, as they are known, need to be capable of running on the mean streets of the Philippines where overloaded vehicles, potholes, reckless driving and even the occasional flood are all part of any normal day for the standard jeepney.(AFP/File/Romeo Gacad)
by Mynardo Macaraig
Thu Sep 13, 3:34 AM ET
MANILA (AFP) - In the Philippines, the smoke-belching "jeepney" that has been the backbone of commuter transport for half a century is also said to be one of the biggest contributors to air pollution.
In Manila, a city of 12 million people, commuters spend hours packed like sardines inside jeepneys breathing in the toxic air.
Some 2,000 people die each year in the Philippines, most of them in Manila, due to the effects of air pollution and more than 9,000 suffer from chronic bronchitis, a 2002 World Bank study found.
The cost to the economy in days lost through sickness ranges from 170 million to 430 million dollars, according to World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates.
A local company backed by the environmental group Greenpeace thinks it may have a solution to help ease the air pollution problem -- electric jeepneys powered by a "bio-digester plant" that generates electricity from household waste.
Solar Electric Co. Inc. sees the electric jeepney as a way of reducing both pollution levels and household garbage at the same time.
Despite the environmentally friendly approach to the transport problem the electric jeepney still has to prove itself and win over the powerful jeepney drivers.
The e-jeepneys, as they are known, need to be capable of running on the mean streets of the Philippines where overloaded vehicles, potholes, reckless driving and even the occasional flood are all part of any normal day for the standard jeepney.
The jeepney first emerged just after World War II when a battle-ravaged Philippines was short of motorised transport.
Clever entrepreneurs bought up US military surplus jeeps, extended their chasses to allow them to carry more people, put roofs on them and turned them into low-cost commuter mini-buses, serving routes that bus or rail companies ignored.
Orlando Marquez, president of the Jeepney Association of the Philippines, an umbrella group of jeepney operators, says there are about half a million registered jeepneys plying the roads today and about an equal number of illegal jeepneys which operate without government permits.
An ADB report released in December 2006 said: "The transport sector is the most significant source of pollution in Metropolitan Manila."
Robert Puckett, president of Solar Electric, says electric jeepneys could help cut pollution levels. Made in China the e-jeepney costs some 550,000 pesos (11,956 dollars) and can cover 100 kilometres (62 miles) before needing to be recharged, which takes between eight and 10 hours.
With a maximum speed of about 40 kilometres (24.8 miles) an hour they can carry 14 passengers -- about the same number as a regular jeepney -- and cost about 150 pesos a day in electricity, says Puckett, compared to around 700 pesos per day for diesel.
In recent weeks, three e-jeepneys have been used as shuttles at a Manila university and in the central city of Bacolod but they cannot roam the streets freely until transport officials give their approval.
Greenpeace International energy campaigner Athena Ronquillo says the transport agencies have indicated they may give their approval before the end of September.
When that happens, five e-jeepneys will get a test run in Manila's Makati business district and in Bacolod for two to three months.
If the e-jeepneys prove viable, the Makati City council will lease 40 and establish the biodigester plant that will generate power for them, says Joey Salgado, spokesman for Makati city.
While no one believes the e-jeepneys will change pollution levels overnight, Ronquillo said they "will show there are climate-friendly alternatives to the current polluting modes of public transportation in the Philippines".
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