Sri Aman air quality worsens as haze builds up across border

The air quality in Sri Aman, Sarawak has gotten progressively worse since midnight as reports of haze south of the border emerge.

According to the Department of Environment, the air pollutant index (API) for Sri Aman breached the 101 mark ("unhealthy") at 1am today and increased gradually, reaching 153 as of 9am.

The Sri Aman air quality monitoring station is the only one getting a three-digit reading at the time of writing.

The Asian Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) website reported yesterday evening that "moderate smoke haze" was observed in West Kalimantan, just south of Sri Aman.

"Based on the latest satellite imagery, moderate smoke haze was observed in the vicinity of hotspot clusters detected in West Kalimantan.

"Localised smoke plumes were also observed to emanate from hotspots detected in Sarawak," said the website.

The ASMC predicted that Peninsular Malaysia, the northern parts of Sumatra and the eastern parts of Borneo can expect dry weather in the coming days, which may result in hotspots and smoke plumes. - Mkini