Haze thickens as Malaysia seeks international help
Haze thickens as Malaysia seeks international help
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysia's haze crisis worsened yesterday as the country sought help from France and Japan to tackle the choking pollution.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia would send firefighters to Indonesia to help put out forest fires that have sent a blanket of haze across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
In Singapore, environmental experts said yesterday that public protests could intensify as tempers become more frayed over smog from uncontrolled Indonesian forest fires choking people in Southeast Asia.
About 60 Malaysian activists staged a rare hour-long demonstration Sunday to demand immediate and serious action from Malaysian and Indonesian authorities to combat the smog.
Mahathir urged the public to wear masks for protection and appealed to them to share cars and use public transport to cut down vehicle emissions.
French experts who have studied the haze returned to Paris on Sunday to arrange a environmental operation, he said.
Assistance was also requested from Japan who had offered "jet- shooters" to help put out fires in Indonesia.
"We realize this problem cannot be overcome easily but we are trying our best," Mahathir was reported saying by Bernama news agency after meeting officials to assess the situation.
The meeting also agreed that it would close all nurseries if the Air Pollution Index crosses the 300 points hazardous level and all schools if the index breaches 400, he said.
On top of sending a firefighting team to Indonesia, it would use the airport in Kuching, capital of the eastern state of Sarawak, as a base for cloud seeding.
Emergency
The state of "haze emergency" in Sarawak would remain in force as air pollution again breached emergency levels early yesterday.
The pollution index in Sarawak on Borneo island surged to 569 after slipping to 366 Sunday. Visibility in Kuching dipped to about 300 meters.
Kuching airport was again closed barely 24 hours after it reopened early Sunday, leaving many passengers and tourists stranded.
Schools in the state remained closed but food outlets, markets, clinics and essential services were opened.
In Kuala Lumpur, the index rose from 108 Sunday to a "very unhealthy" 288 yesterday, the department of environment said.
The index was at 301 in the industrial area of Gombak and 230 in Petaling Jaya, and 306 in Nilai in southwestern state of Negeri Sembilan.
An environment department spokesman said the wind direction has reverted from southeast to southwest after a temporary shift Saturday which brought some blue skies and sunshine.
Meanwhile, officials in Manila said yesterday that the smoke from Indonesia's forest fires has also blown across large areas of the southern Philippines, forcing flight cancellations.
Weather forecasters said the smoke has combined with moisture to form the haze covering many areas of southern Mindanao and the western island province of Palawan.
Malaysia's opposition leader MP Lim Kit Siang called for a daily meeting of Southeast Asian environment ministers to step up regional efforts to fight the haze.
Lim also urged Indonesia to "internationalize the disaster of the raging thousands of forest fires" by establishing a team of experts from other countries to take over full responsibility for putting out the fires.