Govt ready to declare emergency when API is over 400

The government may propose emergency declarations for areas with air pollution readings above 400, says natural resources and environmental sustainability minister Arthur Joseph Kurup.

He said “very dangerous” readings above 400 would warrant consideration for a state of emergency in line with standard procedures for haze management. So far, only Serian had recorded a ‘hazardous’ level, while the “very unhealthy” levels were recorded at Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman monitoring stations.

He said the state of emergency in Serian declared on Friday would remain in effect until air pollution falls to safer levels. Safety measures include the closure of schools and the wearing of face masks.

Under Malaysia’s air pollution scale, a reading of 0 to 50 indicates good air quality, 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 200 unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy, and above 300 hazardous.

Air pollution readings in Serian reached a high of 512 on Friday but fell steadily from 498 at 8pm yesterday to 304 at noon and 219 at 8pm tonight. Sri Aman, Kuching and Samarahan continued to show ‘very unhealthy’ levels.

The Sarawak education department will close 647 primary and secondary schools from Sept 7-11, with home-based teaching and learning to be conducted throughout the five-day period.

Kurup said cloud seeding operations carried out yesterday in Sarawak, Kedah and Perlis showed positive results, with several areas recording rain from yesterday evening until early this morning.

He said Malaysia had also received written permission from the Indonesian government for Malaysian aircraft to enter Indonesian airspace for cloud seeding operations.

The Asean haze monitoring centre reported that moderate to dense smoke plumes were observed over northern Borneo, with moderate to dense smoke plumes observed from hotspot clusters in many parts of Kalimantan and Sumatra.