PETALING JAYA: The haze crisis in Sarawak is intensifying, with Serian recording an Air Pollutant Index (API) of 521 at 2pm – the highest recorded since transboundary haze impacted Malaysia this time.
The reading yesterday puts air quality firmly in the hazardous category in the Sarawak town located 64km south-east of Kuching.
At press time, two other locations in Sarawak – Samarahan and Sri Aman – recorded very unhealthy air quality with API readings recorded at 288 and 239 respectively.
Hazardous API readings range from 300 upwards, while very unhealthy readings range between 201 and 300.
Unhealthy air quality was recorded at 13 locations nationwide, with API readings ranging between 101 and 200.
In Sarawak, the locations were Sarikei (183), Sibu (181), Mukah (178), Bintulu (159), Samalaju (153) and ILP Miri (152).
In Sabah, the three impacted locations were Tawau (153), Politeknik Kota Kinabalu (151) and Sandakan (128).
There were four locations with unhealthy air quality in Johor – Pasir Gudang (151), Kota Tinggi (129), Larkin (126) and Segamat (116).
The highest API readings recorded in Malaysia were in 1997, 2005 and 2013. In 1997, a reading of 839 was recorded in Kuching and eastern Sarawak, subsequently resulting in an emergency declaration.
A state of emergency was also announced in 2005 for Kuala Selangor and Port Klang when the API exceeded 500.
In 2013, an emergency was declared in Muar and Ledang (now known as Tangkak) after API readings there exceeded 750.
In its latest update, the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) said scattered to widespread hotspots were detected in Kalimantan and the southern and central parts of Sumatra.
“Moderate to dense transboundary haze was observed over northern parts of Borneo and the southwestern parts of the Philippines.
“Moderate to dense smoke plumes were also observed in many parts of Kalimantan, central and southern parts of Sumatera and central parts of Sarawak,” it said.
The ASMC said dry conditions were forecast over many parts of the southern Asean region, apart from northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and central parts of Borneo.
“The hotspot and smoke haze situation is expected to stay elevated in fire-prone regions experiencing prolonged dry conditions, with a continued risk of severe transboundary haze occurrence,” ASMC stated.
An image from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Aqua satellite showed smoke covering much of Indonesia and Malaysia on Sept 1.
“Fires are smouldering on the surface and underground in Indonesia, which is in a severe and widespread drought.
“Some of these are tropical peatland fires, which burn slowly, release higher amounts of air pollution and are notoriously difficult to extinguish because they often burn underground,” a caption accompanying the image uploaded on social media stated.
