No end soon to the haze

Limited visibility: Passenger jetliners taxiing even as the airspace around the KL International Airport in Sepang is shrouded by the haze. The air quality index in Banting and Nilai showed unhealthy reading of 164 and 160 respectively as at 1pm yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR: Schools open one day and closed the next, an increasing number of respiratory ailments and uncertainty over whether planes will be grounded or can take off could become the norm over the next five months with the unrelenting haze.

Experts say the forest fires in Indonesia, which have caused choking smoke to drift across South-East Asia, are spreading to new areas and are unlikely to be put out until next year, Reuters reported yesterday.