Smoke pollution prompts anger, fear in Malaysia

Smoke pollution prompts anger, fear in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Smoke pollution from forest fires in Sumatra enveloped the Malaysian capital and several states on Sunday, sparking health fears and anger over the government's response.

A thick smoky haze over Kuala Lumpur and several towns in the states of Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah on Saturday lingered as a grey film engulfed the landscape.

Science, Technology and Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said the haze was "temporary," attributing the pollution to fires deliberately set to clear rainforests on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Winds were bringing the smoke to the west coast of peninsula Malaysia, Law was quoted as saying by the national news agency Bernama.

"As at midnight yesterday, satellite pictures located 95 hotspots -- 92 in Sumatra and three in peninsula Malaysia," he told reporters during a visit to Sarawak state on Borneo island.

Indonesia has repeatedly been hit by uncontrollable forest and ground fires, with the last major ones in 1997 and 1998 destroying some 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) of forest.

Much of the region was covered with a choking haze for several months, causing extensive health and traffic problems in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), on Sunday urged the environment department to update its website on the return of the haze.

He called for pollution readings, discontinued on the website in 1998 for fear they might drive tourists away, to be restored.

Lim urged the ministry to present a statement in parliament next week on the return of the haze and the prospects for the next few months.

He said official websites had become a "bad advertisement" as to how unprepared the government was.

"The department is in the ministry of science, environment and technology and it is a crying shame if one of the websites ends up as a cobwebsite," Lim said in a statement.

The Sun newspaper reported the website had a "joke" among callers who accused the department of trying to fool the public.

The Sunday Star, in a story headlined Unclear Skies and Unclear Answers, said callers also complained the department was unhelpful in providing information.

At lunchtime on Sunday, the meteorological department said visibility in the Kuala Lumpur suburbs of Subang and Petaling Jaya was six kilometers up from below three kilometers the previous day.

But several northern towns continued to record poor visibility, with Alor Setar in Kedah the worst-hit at 1.5 kilometers and Butterworth in Penang at 2.5 kilometers, an official told AFP.

The environment department director Rosnani Ibrahim, in a statement late Saturday, said the "hazy condition is believed to be largely caused by the fires in central and northern Sumatra."

She said information from the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center indicated some 300 hotspots in central and northern Sumatra.

"The surveillance also showed some movement of smoke from central Sumatra to the Straits of Malacca. The south-westerly wind is heading to northern and central peninsula Malaysia," she said.

The department has stepped up surveillance of fires that would contribute to the decline in air quality, she added.