KUCHING: Kuala Baram is experiencing severe haze with the Air Pollutants Index (API) readings taken at SK Kuala Baram 2 in Miri recording hazardous air quality.
The API reading rose to 342 as of 3pm yesterday as compared to 317 at 11am.
The State Disaster Management Committee in a statement said one area recorded very unhealthy air quality level, namely the automatic air quality monitoring station located at Miri Industrial Training Institute with an API reading of 297.
“Two stations recorded unhealthy air quality levels from Sibu and Sri Aman stations while the remaining nine stations showed moderate readings,” the statement said.
An API reading of between 0 and 50 is good while 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 200 is unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy, and 301 and above is deemed
hazardous.
In Sibu, the API reading at 11am was 170 as compared to 118 at 11pm on Sunday.
The API readings for Sri Aman were 107 at 4am yesterday and 102 at 11am.
According to the statement, based on a report by the Singapore-based Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) on Sunday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) –19 satellite image detected 56 hotspots in Kalimantan, two in Sumatra, Indonesia, while four hotspots were detected, two in Miri and one each in Sibu and Kapit, Sarawak.
“In this case, the State Disaster Management Committee has issued notification to the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to conduct cloud seeding in Miri, Kuala Baram, Sibu and Sri Aman.
“Hence, the public are advised not to engage in any open burning activities that may further affect the air quality and cause the haze to worsen,” it said.
For those in the severely affected areas, the committee advised the people to wear facial masks.
More information on the haze situation can be obtained at the Department of Environment’s website http://apims.doe.gov.my/v2/ or downloading the smartphone application MyIPU at ‘Google Play’ where hourly API readings are available.
