Air quality in three areas reaches unhealthy level

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: We’re back to hazy days again.
As of 5pm yesterday, the Air Pollutant Index (API) in three areas breached the 100-moderate mark to enter the "unhealthy" level.
This was much lower than last year when a state of emergency was declared in Port Klang and Kuala Selangor when API readings breached the 500 (hazardous) mark.
The areas affected yesterday were Sri Manjung in Perak, Seberang Jaya in Prai and Port Klang in Selangor.
However, weather changes were expected to alter the API readings, Meteorological Services Department Central Forecast Office principal assistant director Mohd Helmi Abdullah said.
Rain is expected over the next three days as the current south-westerly wind changes direction to a south-easterly one.
"There should be temporary relief based on the changing weather conditions," he said.
The change in wind direction was why the north-western states were being affected by the haze.
Department director-general Dr Yap Kok Seng said cloud-seeding would begin in areas posting a continuous API reading of between 100 and 150 over a 72-hour period.
He said dry weather in the coming months would also worsen the haze caused by open burning in Sumatra.
Reduced rainfall was expected in most parts of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in coming months, Yap said.
He added that drier conditions were also expected in central Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sarawak.
Helmi said there were 12 hotspots in Sumatra, 64 in Borneo and none in Peninsular Malaysia as at 5pm yesterday. This was an improvement over the 29 in Sumatra, 134 in Borneo and one in the peninsular on Monday.
Though the hotspots were reducing in number, Helmi cautioned that the lower readings could be due to cloud cover.
He said visibility levels were falling in certain northern States with Butterworth and Alor Star recording visibility of two kilometres as at 1pm yesterday.
Visibility in Chuping, Perlis, stood at four kilometres, six kilometres in Perai, eight kilometres at Bayan Lepas and three kilometres in Sitiawan, Perak.
In most other places, visibility was more than 10 kilometres.
"The slight haze we are experiencing now is the transboundary haze from Indonesia. Open burning locally also contributes to the problem," Helmi said.
Visibility in Penang was eight kilometres at 2pm yesterday, an improvement over a three-kilometre reading at 8am.
Forecasts by the State Meteorological Services department indicate the southwesterly winds which cause dust from Sumatra to be blown here, will weaken as the week progresses.
Its director S. Santhiran said the department expected the haze to lessen due to weaker winds.
At the Bayan Lepas International Airport, a spokesman said airport operations were proceeding smoothly with flights taking off and landing on schedule.
Yet despite the fears of a repeat of last year, open burning is still being carried out locally.
This was evident during an air surveillance over Selangor conducted by the Department of Environment (DOE) yesterday.
The New Straits Times team that tagged along found open burning in peat ground areas of Johan Setia in Klang as well as Sungai Belankan and Ulu Chuchuh in Sepang.