KUCHING, July 25 — Air quality in Kuching has deteriorated to an unhealthy level, with the Air Pollutant Index (API) reading at 112 as of 2pm.
The Department of Environment’s (DoE) Air Pollution Index Management System (Apims) website showed Kuching had the second highest API reading in the country at 2pm after the 152 recorded in Johan Setia, Klang, Selangor.
The API readings for other areas in the state were at moderate level, however Sri Aman (96) and Mukah (92) were hovering close to unhealthy level.
An API reading of 51 to 100 is considered moderate, while API readings of 101 to 200 are categorised as unhealthy.
This morning, data from the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) website showed Lundu registering an unhealthy API of 125 at 8am and the reading at 12pm improved slightly to 123.
Based on yesterday’s Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) findings, air quality in Sarawak is expected to deteriorate given the large number of hotspots due to open burning detected near and across the Sarawak-Kalimantan Barat border near Lundu.
The ASMC Satellite also detected hotspots across several areas in Sarawak this week, particularly in the western and central regions.
Clusters of hotspots were observed in Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, and Betong divisions, with more detected south of Sibu and scattered near Kapit.
Smaller numbers appeared near Mukah and northeast of Bintulu.
ASMC in its website reported that dry weather persisted over the southern Asean region, including Sarawak, and only a few isolated hotspots were detected in Sarawak and Sumatra, while scattered hotspots were observed in Kalimantan. — The Borneo Post
