Hazardous air pollution levels recorded in four districts of Sarawak
In Malaysia’s state of Sarawak, hazardous air pollution levels were recorded in four districts on August 31 amid haze linked to forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. The highest Air Pollutant Index (API) reading at 9:00 was registered in the Serian district — 475, Channel NewsAsia reports.
In Samarahan, the index stood at 334, in Sri Aman at 330, and in Kuching at 324. Under Malaysia’s API scale, a reading above 300 is classified as hazardous. Values of up to 50 are considered good, 51 to 100 moderate, 101 to 200 unhealthy, and 201 to 300 very unhealthy.
Situation in Sarawak and other regions
In three more districts of Sarawak — Sarikei, Sibu and Mukah — air quality was assessed as very unhealthy: the API stood at 271, 219 and 214, respectively. Malaysia’s Department of Environment also reported unhealthy air quality at another 14 locations in Sarawak, the states of Kedah, Penang and Perak, as well as in Labuan and Sabah.
In particular, the API reached 150 in Taiping, Perak state, 156 in Seberang Jaya, Penang, and 157 in Sungai Petani, Kedah state. In Sabah, a monitoring station at Kota Kinabalu Polytechnic recorded an index of 111, while Tawau recorded 153.
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Smoke from fires and a possible state of emergency
According to the Department of Environment, air quality deteriorated on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, as well as in Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan, due to haze moving from different directions. Satellite images detected 324 fire hotspots in Kalimantan and 42 in Sumatra. Two hotspots were detected in Malaysia — one each in Perak and Sarawak.
The department also reported moderate to dense transboundary smoke over western and central Kalimantan, Brunei, and western and central Sarawak. Smoke from clusters of hotspots in North Kalimantan was moving toward southern Sabah.
Sarawak Deputy Premier Douglas Uggah Embas said the state is ready to declare an emergency if air pollution reaches a critical level. According to him, if the API exceeds 500, regulations require public and private offices and workplaces to close, except for essential services, pending a decision by the national disaster management committee.
Due to the haze, Sarawak authorities canceled the state-level National Day celebration planned in Kapit. At the same time, in Malaysia’s administrative capital, Putrajaya, the API stood at 79 at 7:00, meaning air quality was moderate, so the main National Day celebrations took place as scheduled.
