By DayakDaily Team
KUALA BERANG, Sept 5: The government is ready to propose declaring an emergency in any area that records an Air Pollution Index (API) reading above 400, in line with the country’s standard operating procedure for haze management.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Datuk Seri Arthur Joseph Kurup said the measure could be considered if the API reading was at a very dangerous level, as happened in Serian, which recorded more than 500, leading to the declaration of an emergency.
“If it is more than 400, it is considered very dangerous and can be considered to declare an emergency,” he told reporters after officiating the Handover Ceremony of the Madani Adoption Village and MADANI Adoption School Project in 2026 at Dataran Kampung Basong, here today.
Arthur said only three of the 68 API monitoring stations nationwide had recorded very unhealthy readings so far, namely in Kuching, Samarahan, and Sri Aman, while Serian recorded readings at a dangerous level.
He said the emergency declaration would remain in effect until API readings dropped to a safer level, with safety measures in place during that period, such as school closures and wearing face masks.
It was reported yesterday that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ibrahim, declared an emergency in the entire Serian Division following haze conditions that had reached levels of air pollution hazardous to public health and safety.
The Prime Minister’s Office, in a statement, said the decision was made after taking into account advice from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, as well as relevant agencies on the area’s air quality levels.
In a related development, Arthur said the cloud seeding operation carried out yesterday (Sept 4) in Sarawak and the northern peninsula, namely in Kedah and Perlis, showed positive results, with several areas recording rain starting yesterday evening until early this morning.
He said Malaysia had also received written permission from the Indonesian government for the country’s air assets to enter the republic’s airspace for cloud seeding operations.
“We have carried out cloud seeding operations in Sarawak and sometimes for wider operations, our air assets need to cross the border to ‘shoot’ at the clouds, and the wind will bring the clouds to our country,” he said.
In addition, Arthur said Malaysia had also offered assets and workforce to help extinguish the open fires currently taking place in Indonesia, but so far there has been no official request from the republic in this regard. — Bernama
