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Malaysia chokes as smog makes a comeback
Government distributing masks in
hard-hit regions of Malaysia.
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
October 5 2006
Malaysia’s date with haze is turning out to be deadly, yet again. The nation is choking under the threat of a smokescreen disaster with only as many as five among the total 51 monitoring stations reporting clean air on Thursday.
The impending danger has forced the administration to go on an overdrive distributing masks in the nation’s hard hit regions. Under a cloud of haze is the state of Sarawak. Eight of the stations with the latest unhealthy readings were in this region. Most of the country’s zones have reported unhealthy air levels with API readings of 101-plus. The haze visits Malaysia every year as a fall out of the land-clearing fires in Indonesia, and sometimes in Malaysia, forcing residents run helter skelter.
With visibility having been reduced to down to less than a kilometer, the situation is gradually going out of control of the administration, say reports. According to the reports from Sarawak, five of Malaysia's 51 monitoring stations reported clean air recordings on Thursday.
Newspaper reports from this part f the world say that Sarawak residents are now eligible for 10 free masks each. Further, the administration has also resorted to cloud-seeding operations in a bid to force rainfall.
Considering that hotspots such as Malacca, Seremban and the industrial town of Nilai, that are set to be dealt a nasty blow by the choking haze are close to Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and the main airport in Sepang, Malaysian authorities are at present left worried on how to tackle the haze menace. Readings for Kuala Lumpur and Sepang have risen to around 100. Scenes of city spots shrouded by smog and kids and adults alike scrambling for masks are sending out the fear signals across the region.
The fires are typically started by farmers clearing brush for plantations, often on Sumatra island and in Kalimantan province, Indonesia's portion of Borneo.
The worst case of smoke-induced haze occurred in 1997-98. It blanketed much of Southeast Asia, resulting in losses of nearly US$9 billion in lost tourism, health and business costs.
Meanwhile, blaming Indonesia for being the cause for the calamity, Malaysia’s main opposition party has lambasted Indonesia for failing to curb illegal open burning and for not seeking international help to put out the fires. Urging the Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to call an emergency meeting of Southeast Asian countries to demand Indonesia take measures to check the haze and prevent it from becoming an annual disaster for the region, the party said Indonesia should pay for its mistakes by making adequate compensation for the damage caused.
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