Malaysia wins relief from haze but northern islands 'unhealthy'

Malaysia wins relief from haze but northern islands 'unhealthy'

M. Jegathesan, Agence France-Presse/Kuala Lumpur

The haze that has smothered central Malaysia cleared on Sunday as winds shifted and cloud-seeding sent rain over affected areas, but air quality in two northern resort islands rose to unhealthy levels.

And a meteorological department official warned that last week's crisis could recur unless the forest fires raging in Indonesia's Sumatra island, which sent hazardous levels of smoke and dust over Malaysia, were extinguished.

"The fires there are still burning. There is no rain there. I believe the smog will return if there are no showers in Malaysia," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Malaysia has put 100 firefighters on standby to be deployed to Indonesia, and Deputy Premier Najib Razak last week urged Indonesia to clear bureaucratic hurdles delaying the dispatch "as soon as possible".

Fire and rescue department assistant deputy-general Zurkarnian Mohamad Kasim told AFP that the firefighters are preparing to leave for Riau in Sumatra to battle the hundreds of fires burning there.

"We are waiting for the green light," he said, adding that "if we get it today, we will fly on Monday to the crisis zone."

Zurkarnian said the task would be difficult and dangerous due to the lack of water in the region, but that the Malaysian firefighters would be equipped with heavy-duty pumps and all- terrain vehicles.

The same team fought fires in Sumatra during the 1997-1998 haze crisis which blighted parts of Southeast Asia and cost the region an estimated US$9 billion in losses by disrupting air travel and other business activity.

Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur and the western coast, which is separated from Sumatra by the narrow Malacca Strait, bore the brunt of the pollution crisis last week and a state of emergency was declared in two coastal towns.

The state of emergency was lifted on Saturday. But while blue skies returned to Kuala Lumpur, shifting winds sent the smoke north and triggered warnings to tourists on the resort island of Penang.

The air pollution index (API) on Penang, which also houses most of Malaysia's IT industry, rose to 126 on Sunday from 104 on Saturday. On the mainland town of Prai, it reached 164. An "unhealthy" API is anything between 101 and 200.

The popular island resort of Langkawi in Kedah state also suffered poor air quality with 111 recorded on Sunday.

Meanwhile in Kuala Lumpur the API was just 50 and in the two towns where emergencies were declared last week, Port Klang and Kuala Selangor where levels had soared above 500, it had fallen to 78 and 62 respectively.

The meteorological department official said the much-improved conditions in central Malaysia were partly due to cloud-seeding operations -- where chemicals are dropped from airplanes to induce rain.

Two cloud-seedings were carried on Friday and Saturday and a third would be conducted late on Sunday to try to wash away the smog hanging in the atmosphere, he said.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said last week that Malaysia would declare an emergency in any area where the pollution index hit 500 and urged authorities to remain alert. An API above 300 is considered hazardous.