By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Aug 10: Those in Kuala Baram are advised to stay indoor following a high air pollution index (API) of 392 detected at the Industrial Training Institute (ILP) in Miri as of 12 noon.
Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Assistant Minister Datu Len Talif Salleh has called on the residents in Kuala Baram area to cut down their outdoor activities as API of 300 was considered hazardous to health.
“Due to peat fires at Kuala Baram, the situation in Miri has worsened where API had gone above 300. My advice for those staying in Kuala Baram area is try to stay indoor and cut down your outdoor activities,” he urged.
He informed DayakDaily today that the peat fires continue to burn across Kuala Baram and thus contributed to the hazardous air pollution in the area.
“Our Bomba are still fighting the peat fires at Kuala Baram. For the time being, we just hope the rain will come soon and the wind will carry the haze away,” he added.
API reading for ILP started to hike to 136 at 11pm last night and continued to increase. As of 2am last night, it had broken the 300 hazardous level to 307.
The API readings at ILP Miri continued to increase until 12 noon today.
As of 12 noon, other parts of Sarawak have registered API below 100.
Samarahan and Sri Aman standing at 95 and 93 respectively. However, it was on the verge of breaking the moderately healthy API of 100.
As for readings in other cities and towns, Miri recorded 77; Bintulu 74; Kuching 74 and Sibu 72. The rest of the towns showed an API of below 70.
API of 0-50 indicates good air quality; 51- 100 is considered moderate; 101-200, unhealthy; 201-300, very unhealthy and above 300, hazardous.
Meanwhile, there were three hotspots detected in Sarawak yesterday and 93 for Kalimantan.
In Sarawak, the three hotspots found yesterday were in Sibu, Selangau and Daro.— DayakDaily
