Sri Aman in Sarawak is once again worse hit by the transboundary haze being swept into the region, with its Air Pollution Index (API) exceeding 400.
The API at Sri Aman breached 300 at 6am and has been steadily climbing, reading at 402 at 8am and now 414 as at 9am this morning.
According to the Environment Department’s API, any reading exceeding 300 is indicative of “hazardous” air quality.
If that is not bad enough, the dry spell has also seen Sri Aman saddled with water supply disruption.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas has said on Wednesday disruption could possibly go on to the end of the month as forecast by the Meteorological Department.
Other API stations in Sarawak also show “very unhealthy” readings at 9am today. They are at: Sarikei (232), Samarahan (218) and Kuching (248), while Sibu is close to breaching the 200 mark with API of 199
Only Kapit indicated marginally better air quality with a reading of 97, or “moderate” at that time.
An API reading of 0-50 is deemed good, 51-100 (moderate), 101-200 (unhealthy), 201 - 300 (very unhealthy) and anything above 300 is deemed hazardous.
According to the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), an emergency would only be called should air index exceed 500.
Bernama reported yesterday that cloud seeding would be conducted in the state for two days, beginning today.
Cloud seeding will commence with the aid of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and use of its Charlie 130 Hercules transport aircraft.
The Education Ministry announced that up to 1,037 schools in the state is to close today, along with 939 in Selangor, 25 in Putrajaya, 296 in Kuala Lumpur and 399 in Penang.
The ministry regularly updates lists of affected schools and districts on its Facebook page. - Mkini
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