BALQIS LIM AND BALQIS NASIR New Straits Times 15 Mar 14;
BELOW 500 LEVEL: Govt has no plans to declare state of emergency
KUALA LUMPUR: ALL 203 schools in the Klang and Kuala Langat districts in Selangor were ordered to close yesterday due to unhealthy air quality.
Selangor Education Department director Datuk Mahmud Karim said the closure, which affected 211,700 pupils, would be lifted once the air quality improved
He said the district education offices (PPD) and the schools had been asked to inform parents or guardians on the latest development so that all affected pupils could return to school later.
"We have informed the PPD regarding the school closure before making the announcement to parents and guardians.
"The order remains indefinitely. We are monitoring the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings regularly before making any decision on reopening the schools," he said.
There are 132 schools in the Klang district which affected 161,700 pupils, while 71 schools in the Kuala Langat district involved 50,000 pupils.
Mahmud advised parents of children with health problems like asthma to inform the principal or headmaster should they feel there was a risk in their children attending classes.
He added they should also don face masks as precautionary measures when outdoors.
Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan said school authorities must remain alert and cautious with the current situation as the main priority was the pupils' health.
"Schools in areas, where the haze had worsened, should continuously monitor the API readings by referring to the Department of Environment's (DoE) website so they can be informed on the current condition.
"The pupils are also advised to wear face masks and drink plenty of water during the haze," he said.
On March 4, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said if the API reading exceeded 150, all outdoor activities would have to be scrapped while the schools would be closed if the API breached 200.
Visibility in the Klang Valley yesterday fluctuated due to thick haze. As at 5pm, the haze had reduced visibility in Petaling Jaya to 500m while Subang and Sepang were at 2km respectively.
The haze has also led to several flight disruptions with AirAsia cancelling all its flights to and from Pekanbaru in Indonesia for two days, starting yesterday due to low visibility.
Meanwhile in Kajang, the government has no plans to declare a state of emergency in view of the worsening haze situation in the Klang Valley and other parts of the country.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said an emergency would only be declared by the National Security Council should the API reading breach the 500 level.
"There is no need to declare a state of emergency as the API reading in the critical areas is still below 500."
Port Klang API levels at a hazardous 308
isabelle lai AND kathleen ann kili The Star 14 Mar 14;
PETALING JAYA: Air quality in Port Klang remained at hazardous levels as haze worsened over parts of Peninsular Malaysia with yet another day of dry skies.
The Air Pollutant Index (API) showed Port Klang’s hourly air quality readings remaining hazardous the entire day, with a reading of 308 at 7pm.
Banting also suffered hazardous air quality from midnight to 11am before dipping slightly to “very unhealthy” levels from noon and recording 209 at 7pm.
An API reading of between 0 and 50 is considered good; 51 to 100, moderate; 101 to 200, unhealthy; 201 to 300, very unhealthy; and 301 and above, hazardous.
As at 7pm, 12 places recorded unhealthy readings: Muar (116), Bandaraya Melaka (109), Bukit Rambai (113), Nilai (133), Port Dickson (141), Seremban (119), Tanjung Malim (111), Kuala Selangor (114), Petaling Jaya (168), Shah Alam (157), Batu Muda, Kuala Lumpur (142) and Cheras (122).
The Meteorological Department also recorded poor visibility in haze-shrouded areas, including reduced visibility of up to just 300m at its worst point in Petaling Jaya, followed by up to 600m in Subang and 1km in KLIA.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said the Department of Environment’s ban against open burning had now been extended to Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya effective Thursday.
“No open burning can be done in these areas except for certain activities such as cremation, religious purposes and barbecues. Those caught carrying out open burning can be fined up to RM500,000, jailed not more than five years or both,” he told reporters on Friday, adding that a maximum compound of RM2,000 could also be imposed for each offence.
Palanivel said as at March 12, DOE had detected 1,441 open burning cases, mostly involving farms (491), forest fires (296) and small open fires (270).
He also denied that the mounting number of cases were due to poor enforcement, adding that the ministry was having difficulty controlling the situation due to the dry weather, and that “sometimes, people just resorted to open burning”.
“We are distributing 13,000 face masks to students in schools in Selangor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Putrajaya which are in areas experiencing severe haze,” he said.
In JOHOR, state Health and Environment committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat advised people to refrain from outdoor activities and wear respiratory masks if they were susceptible to bad air.
“Although the haze situation in Muar is still under control, the public should start taking precautionary measures to avoid falling ill,” he said.
Watering plants, washing cars may land you in trouble
patrick lee The Star 15 Mar 14;
PETALING JAYA: Car washing and plant watering may be banned soon if the water levels in the dams show no sign of improving over the next three weeks.
An official of the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry (KeTTHA) told The Star that once a “water emergency” comes into effect, it would give its minister wide ranging powers to curb water wastage, both private and public.
“A water emergency would mean the law might be enforced to ban the use of hoses to water gardens and using potable water for cleaning cars,” the official said.
During a water emergency, Section 56 of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 empowers Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili to prohibit or restrict both the general and specific uses of water, or limit it to certain hours of the day.
Surcharges could also be applied on those who use above what is considered a reasonable quota.
The law also states that those owning or using water supplies can be ordered to stop operating, with those failing to comply liable to be fined up to RM300,000 or jailed not more than three years, or both.
As an example, the official said, car wash operators might be ordered to cease operations during this time.
“We have to alter consumption behaviour at large. People are not really listening (to our warnings) because the tariff is so low,” said the official, who added that the situation was “worrying”.
Previously, The Star reported Dr Maximus as saying that a water emergency would have to be declared in as early as three weeks if rains did not fall.
Much of the peninsula has been hit hard by the heat wave, with little rain over water catchment areas serving densely populated areas such as Klang Valley.
Luas, the Selangor Water Management Authority, said on its website that the Sun-gai Selangor Dam – the state’s largest – dropped to 40.08% of its capacity on Friday morning.
On Thursday, Luas director Md Khairi Selamat said the dam’s critical level was 30%, which could be reached in 30 days if there is no rain.
Malaysian Water Association president Syed Mohamad Alhabshi said essential services such as airports and hospitals would most likely still enjoy regular supply in an emergency.
“I don’t know how long the emergency will last, but we’ll have to hold on until the next monsoon season after September,” he said.
Association of Water and Energy Research president S. Piarapakaran said a lot of economic activity would be disrupted during an emergency, and added that sufficient notice needed to be given, or else, chaos could erupt.
The last time a water emergency was imposed was in Malacca in 1991 when the Durian Tunggal dam dried up.
Cloud seeding op to resume today, says dept
isabelle lai The Star 15 Mar 14;
PETALING JAYA: The National Security Council has recalled a Hercules plane from the MH370 search and rescue operations for cloud seeding duty which is expected to resume today.
This comes in the wake of mounting public alarm over depleting water levels in dams as well as the current dry weather and open burning cases that are contributing to the choking haze over parts of the country.
The Meteorological Department’s atmospheric science and cloud seeding division director Azhar Ishak said the operation would kick off at around 2.30pm today, adding that it was targeted at clouds over water catchment areas and places with severe haze.
The operation, he said, would be carried out with the cooperation of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, with the C-130 flown by Squadron 20 from its Subang base.
“We have identified favourable cloud conditions. We hope to induce rainfall over water catchment areas in Selangor as well as areas such as Port Klang, Putrajaya and Sepang which are experiencing severe haze,” he told The Star here yesterday.
He had earlier said that the cloud seeding exercise had to be postponed as the RMAF’s C-130s were being deployed to help in the search and rescue of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane.
Should conditions remain good today, Azhar said the cloud seeding operation might also be carried out in Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor.
He said from Tuesday or Wednesday onwards, the department would conduct cloud seeding using a private aircraft that it had contracted.
The aircraft, a six-seater Cessna, had been modified for the operation and was currently undergoing repairs, said Azhar.
“We will continue cloud seeding until heavy rainfall starts in the inter-monsoon period,” he said. “This is expected to begin from the end of March to May.”
Azhar said cloud seeding would be carried out in as many states as the department could reach, especially over areas affected by severe haze.
His officers, he added, would constantly refer to the department’s satellite images to locate suitable rain clouds for the operation. “We will be doing wet seeding with the C-130 and dry seeding with the Cessna,” he said.
Wet seeding involves spraying a salt solution at the base of identified clouds while dry seeding is done using hygroscopic flares, fixed onto an aircraft’s wings, that will disperse salt particles into the clouds when lit.
Cloud seeding is expected to be able to induce rainfall within 15 minutes to half an hour after the exercise.
Owners at risk of losing their land if they carry out open burning
The Star 15 Mar 14;
SHAH ALAM: Selangor has threatened to confiscate land belonging to people who constantly carry out open burning on their property.
“We also want these people to be prosecuted in court,” said the executive councillor in charge of environment, Elizabeth Wong, at a press conference here yesterday.
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who was also present, confirmed that plans were underway for the exercise to be initiated.
Khalid and Wong earlier attended the launching of the Malaysia Women Marathon 2014 here, where Wong also revealed that the state was working on plans to compulsorily acquire some land to store water, presumably for its proposed Hybrid Off-River Augmentation System meant to boost the security of water supply.
On open burning, Wong said the state had identified some 2,000 individual owners of small plots of land in the vicinity of Johan Setia, which sees a fair share of open burning every year, and had already drawn-up a name list that also included land belonging to large companies.
Wong also said the Selangor Environment Department had also opened 12 investigation papers on big scale burning with a view of prosecuting the culprits.
“Some of the areas have been repeatedly told not to burn, but they continue. So, the owners will be identified for prosecution, and might even have their land confiscated.”
However, Wong said fires in Selangor were currently under control, though some of the fires were located in highly inaccessible areas.
Meanwhile, Khalid said that Selangor valued women and that was why 40% of its exco members were of the fairer sex.
This is the second year that the women’s marathon was being held, with twice the number of participants compared to last year.
The Malaysia Women Marathon is one of the five all-women marathon events in the world.
