KOTA KINABALU: Air quality in Sabah deteriorated today, with one monitoring station recording an unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 142 as haze continued to affect several areas in the state.
The Sabah Department of Environment (DOE) said the reading was recorded at 5pm, with the station having recorded an API reading above 100 since noon.
Five other monitoring stations recorded moderate air quality readings, namely Kota Kinabalu at 97, Kimanis at 95, Keningau at 93, Tawau at 79 and Sandakan at 78.
The DOE said the deterioration in air quality was attributed to transboundary haze caused by forest and peatland fires in Kalimantan, with thick smoke carried by winds towards Borneo, including Sabah.
It said a fire involving 202 squatter houses on water at Kampung Numbak, Kota Kinabalu, at about 6am today also contributed to the deterioration of local air quality.
"No other major fires around Kota Kinabalu have been reported by the Sabah Fire and Rescue Department," the department said in its report on the status of air quality and haze in Sabah today.
According to a report by the Singapore-based Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) on Aug 29, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite imagery detected two hotspots in Tuaran and Kota Belud. The hotspots were detected in scrubland and the fires have since been completely extinguished, with no hotspots detected at the same locations in observations on Aug 30.
The ASMC display on Aug 30 also showed two hotspots in Kampung Numbak linked to the fire involving the squatter houses, while 1,107 hotspots were detected in Kalimantan in observations on Aug 29.
Under the National Haze Action Plan, an API reading of 101 to 200 indicates unhealthy air quality, while readings of 201 to 400 are categorised as very unhealthy and 401 to 500 as hazardous. Schools, kindergartens and nurseries will be closed immediately when the API reaches 200.
The DOE said it was stepping up enforcement and daily patrols in areas prone to open burning due to the hot and dry weather, while continuing to monitor API readings. A total of 474 patrols under the Open Burning Prevention Operation (OMPT) have been conducted so far.
The department advised the public to check the latest hourly API readings through its website or the official MyIPU smartphone application, and to obtain health advice and preventive measures during haze from the Health Ministry's website.
It also urged the public not to conduct open burning or allow their land or premises to be entered by irresponsible parties who could cause open burning intentionally or accidentally.
Under Section 29(A) of the Environmental Quality Act 1974, those convicted of open burning offences can be fined between RM25,000 and RM1 million, jailed for up to five years, or both. A maximum compound of RM2,000 or up to RM500,000 may also be imposed for open burning offences.
The public was also urged to help extinguish small fires and report cases of open burning or fires to the Fire and Rescue Department at 999 or the DOE's toll-free line at 1-800-88-2727.
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