YU JI The Star 24 Aug 15;
KUCHING: Southern Sarawak is shrouded in haze, with pollution readings breaching unhealthy levels. At the start of the weekend, the Air Pollutant Index (API) was still within the moderate range of 51 to 100 on Friday evening but rose steadily later.
By noon on Saturday, visibility had reduced to about 5km and yesterday morning, the smell of ash was evident.
Visibility was reduced to 1.5km yesterday afternoon at the usually picturesque Kuching Waterfront along the Sarawak River, with an API reading of 117.
Over in Sri Aman, a small town of 20,000 people about 160km from here, the API reading of 125 was the highest recorded in the country.
Further north, the API was 92 in Sibu and 90 in Miri.
According to satellite imagery from the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre, no hotspots were detected within Sarawak.
But this could be due to cloud cover. Data showed that most of the haze was transboundary, with as many as 85 hotspots detected in Borneo on Friday, which reduced to 35 yesterday.
“Drier weather conditions over the region in the past few days led to an escalation in the number of hotspots,” according to the latest report from the Singapore-based centre. The report stated that dry weather conditions were likely to persist in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
“Under prevailing wind conditions, transboundary smoke haze is likely to affect other parts of the region should the hotspot activities continue to persist,” it added.
Since Aug 18, the centre has categorised South-East Asia at “Alert Level Two”, the second most severe level. It indicates moderate to dense haze is likely to occur.
Since July, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei have been receiving lower than normal rainfall which is partly due to the prevailing El Nino conditions.
A Malaysian Meteorological Department seasonal forecast stated that there was a 90% probability for moderate levels of El Nino conditions to continue well into March or April next year.
The worst affected areas will be in southern Sarawak. The department said Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong and parts of Sibu, Bintulu and Mukah would experience slightly drier weather in September.
The average monthly rainfall forecast until September is between 130mm and 190mm. This estimated reduction translates to between 20% and 40% less compared with the long-term average rainfall amount.
