Haze hits Malaysian town again<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Smoke from fires set to clear land in Indonesia has shrouded much
\nof neighboring Malaysia in haze, causing a marked drop in air
\nquality, news reports and officials said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Visibility in several parts of the country had been reduced to
\nas low as two kilometers from the normal ten kilometers, a
\nmeteorological department official told The Associated Press on
\ncustomary condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Air quality in most parts of the country had dipped from
\n\"good\" to \"moderate,\" The Star daily cited Rosnani Ibrahim, the
\nenvironment ministry's director-general, as saying. Moderate is
\nthe second-best level in five tiers of air-quality ratings from
\ngood to dangerous.<\/p>\n
\"The drop in air quality is caused by particulate matter
\nblowing in from the fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan,\" she told
\nthe daily. Rosnani was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
In June, smoke from wildfires in Indonesia is drifted across
\nneighboring Malaysia, shrouding Kuala Lumpur and the northern
\nisland resort of Penang in thick haze and sending air quality
\nplummeting to the third-tier \"unhealth\" level for several days.<\/p>\n
Officials blamed the smog on more than one hundred \"hot spots\"
\nin Sumatra, which is separated from peninsular Malaysia by the
\nnarrow Straits of Malacca, and Kalimantan, which borders the
\nMalaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island.<\/p>\n
Deputy Environment Minister S. Sothinathan said Malaysia would
\nagain contact the Indonesian government \"to express our concern
\nover the recurrence of the haze,\" The Star reported.<\/p>\n
\"We will seek their cooperation to put out the fires as soon
\nas possible,\" Sothinathan told the daily.<\/p>\n
Fires set illegally by Indonesian and Malaysian farmers to
\nclear land are blamed for haze that clouds skies in parts of
\nSoutheast Asia each dry season.<\/p>\n
In 1997-98, fires set mainly on oil palm plantations and
\nagricultural holdings in Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan
\nprovinces burned out of control for weeks, destroying 10 million
\nhectares and blanketing Singapore and parts of Malaysia and
\nIndonesia with thick smoke.<\/p>\n
The ecological disaster sparked a diplomatic row, with
\neconomic losses estimated at around US$9.3 billion, and prompted
\na 2002 agreement to fight transborder pollution from forest
\nfires.<\/p>",
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