More schools closed in S'wak as haze spreads, 138,384 students affected

MIRI: The haze situation has worsened in Sarawak and forced 337 schools in nine districts to shut down on Wednesday morning (Sept 18).

Some 138,384 students are affected by the closure of 281 primary and 56 secondary schools.

The Sarawak State Disaster Relief Management Committee said the Education Department had issued the latest notice on the closure.

The nine districts hit by very unhealthy air pollution levels are Betong, Bau, Kuching, Lubok Antu, Padawan, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Lundu and Kanowit.

In Sri Aman the API reading went down from a high 354 the previous day to 239 as at 8am today.

Kuching district has the most number of affected schools, with 57,504 students forced to stay home.

These areas in the state are badly hit by the transboundary haze from Kalimantan. However, there are also local wildfires inside Sarawak that are contributing to the haze.

The latest updates from the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department showed that there are local forest-fires in Sri Aman and Lundu too.

Bomba Sarawak said fire-fighters are on the ground battling these fires.