KUCHING, Sept 18 – The severe haze since the morning of Thursday causes the second day of cloud seeding fail carried out to reduce the effect of haze in several areas in the state of Sarawak. The cloud seeding operation was successfully conducted on Wednesday only.
“The operation by the Department of Environment, in cooperation with Malaysian Meteorogical Department and aided by Royal Malaysian Air Force, Kuching Water Board and Public Works Department also couldn’t be carried out for safety reasons. The cloud seeding operation couldn’t be carried out on Wednesday as it was unsafe for flying due to poor visibility while suitable clouds for the cloud seeding operation was not available on Thursday,” said Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang.
State Disaster management Committee chairman Jabu also held a one-hour meeting with the Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board Controller Peter Sawal and representatives of the state National Security Council at Wisma Bapa Malaysia. Commenting on the closure of 463 primary and secondary schools in seven districts on Thursday, Jabu said it was a normal process if the haze reached a very unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) level.
Jabu said the directive to close schools was issued to ensure the students’ health are not affected. He said they don’t want to place their health at risk and will continue to monitor the API and decide whether school will continue to close on Friday. Meanwhile, he added that no open burning was detected in Sarawak, on the other hand he stressed that the haze engulfing the state originated from Kalimantan, Indonesia.
“The API is seen dropping below 200 this evening. We are monitoring the situation because the wind from Kalimantan is taking the haze straight to us in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian. We also expect the wind pattern will not alter drastically, so we will continue to monitor the API as there are still many hotspots in Kalimantan,” Jabu said.
