Haze Worsens In Northern Peninsular Malaysia
The haze has worsened in northern Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand Monday with the air pollutant index (API) reaching the moderate level.
The API reading was 65 Monday, rising from below 50 Sunday.
According to a report posted on the Department of Environment (DOE) website, visibility was poor in Prai, Butterworth, Bayan Lepas, Sitiawan, Batu Embun, and Cameron Highlands.
Bintulu town in northern Sarawak also experienced poor visibility. However, air quality was good in 15 areas and moderate in 36 areas nationwide. Satellites at the Asean Special Meteorological Centre detected 188 hot spots in Sumatra, 148 in Kalimantan and 27 in Malaysia.
Meanwhile in PERLIS, State DOE director Aminudin Ishak said the API reading in the State was 65 but the air quality was good Monday. "We are monitoring open burning activities which could aggravate the haze in the State," he said.
In KEDAH, API readings were between 60 and 79. Visibility was also good, which was more than three kilometres. News report from Bangkok said some parts of southern Thailand especially Songhkla were shrouded in thick smog, forcing drivers to use headlights due to very poor visibility.
So the earlier worry that the haze may return seems justified. So what do we do now? Send our poor firemen to Indonesia again just because the fools there don't know how to govern their provinces and firmly enforce rules that are already in place? While we may be able to reduce open burning here, unfortunately we will not be in a position to influence decisions in Jakarta as we have learnt many times in the past. They seem to get a perverse pleasure out of seeing us being distressed and inconvenienced by the haze.
Our government has tried everything possible to get the damned Indons to do something concrete and permanent about this recurrent problem, but after some sincere nodding, the Indon leaders finally get back to the same untenable point - that our plantation owners in Indonesia are responsible for the open burning there! What a novel way of washing their hands off the whole problem.
Given this scenario and knowing that the Indon government will be as helpful in a crisis as the Singaporeans, we have to make the best of a bad situation. Try our level best to reduce open burning here and educate the public on the health hazards of the haze. Maybe even a little diplomatic begging on the sly in Jakarta may be useful. But please oh please don't fudge, fake or conceal API readings..
The API reading was 65 Monday, rising from below 50 Sunday.
According to a report posted on the Department of Environment (DOE) website, visibility was poor in Prai, Butterworth, Bayan Lepas, Sitiawan, Batu Embun, and Cameron Highlands.
Bintulu town in northern Sarawak also experienced poor visibility. However, air quality was good in 15 areas and moderate in 36 areas nationwide. Satellites at the Asean Special Meteorological Centre detected 188 hot spots in Sumatra, 148 in Kalimantan and 27 in Malaysia.
Meanwhile in PERLIS, State DOE director Aminudin Ishak said the API reading in the State was 65 but the air quality was good Monday. "We are monitoring open burning activities which could aggravate the haze in the State," he said.
In KEDAH, API readings were between 60 and 79. Visibility was also good, which was more than three kilometres. News report from Bangkok said some parts of southern Thailand especially Songhkla were shrouded in thick smog, forcing drivers to use headlights due to very poor visibility.
So the earlier worry that the haze may return seems justified. So what do we do now? Send our poor firemen to Indonesia again just because the fools there don't know how to govern their provinces and firmly enforce rules that are already in place? While we may be able to reduce open burning here, unfortunately we will not be in a position to influence decisions in Jakarta as we have learnt many times in the past. They seem to get a perverse pleasure out of seeing us being distressed and inconvenienced by the haze.
Our government has tried everything possible to get the damned Indons to do something concrete and permanent about this recurrent problem, but after some sincere nodding, the Indon leaders finally get back to the same untenable point - that our plantation owners in Indonesia are responsible for the open burning there! What a novel way of washing their hands off the whole problem.
Given this scenario and knowing that the Indon government will be as helpful in a crisis as the Singaporeans, we have to make the best of a bad situation. Try our level best to reduce open burning here and educate the public on the health hazards of the haze. Maybe even a little diplomatic begging on the sly in Jakarta may be useful. But please oh please don't fudge, fake or conceal API readings..
posted by The Malaysian. at 7/18/2006 12:30:00 AM
1 Comments:
Thumbs up for the webmaster here. However, occasionally, there are still open burning at small or moderate scale here. Public still lack of information on how to report the case to the authorities. Can please advise whether there is a direct complaint hotline which the public can report to the authorities to stop this activity? It is really annoying especially to neighbours.
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