|
|
Hazy Malaysia Offers Help to Douse Indonesia Fires
Reuters AlertNet
Malaysia
August 10, 2005
Malaysia offered on Wednesday to help neighbour Indonesia extinguish forest fires that have smothered Kuala Lumpur in a thick pall of smoke for a week, aggravating traffic and health conditions.
Malaysia will publish daily pollution measurements, Environment Minister Adenan Satem told a news conference, signalling an about-turn in policy that reverses a 1997 decision to keep the figures secret.
"The situation is not getting better, it is getting worse," Adenan said after a cabinet meeting that discussed ways to dispel the haze around the capital.
"The department of environment will release the Air Pollutant Index (API) reading," he added, warning the haze would persist for a few days more.
In Kuala Lumpur, wisps of smog swirled around the gleaming Petronas Towers, occasionally hiding the iconic structures from people in the streets below, many of whom wore masks or held up handkerchiefs to block out the worst of the acrid smoke.
"This is the worst thing in Malaysia," said a tourist from the United Arab Emirates accompanied by his wife and three daughters, who gave his name only as Ahmad.
"We're concerned for our health, especially for children and for old people. It's very bad."
Kuala Lumpur fought back by shutting some schools, warning against traffic hazards after a ship ran aground at nearby Port Klang and preparing to declare emergency in the worst-hit regions.
Air purifiers were "selling like hot cakes", said Azmi, a doctor. A long queue of people waited to buy air ionisers and purifiers in a swanky shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, he said. "They're flying off the shelves."
EMERGENCY IF INDEX REACHES 500
Adenan said he and Commodities Minister Peter Chin would travel to Jakarta as soon as possible to offer Malaysia's assistance in battling the haze, in response to a plea Indonesia made to ASEAN nations.
The government would declare an emergency if the pollution index hit 500, a level considered hazardous, he said. Kuala Lumpur registered 181 on Wednesday, with Putrajaya, the administrative capital, at 224, and Port Klang at 410.
The API numbers have been kept secret in the past for fear of the consequences for the tourism industry.
"If it gets worse, we will declare an emergency, but conditions are nowhere near hazardous at the moment," an official at the environment ministry's air monitoring unit told Reuters.
Domestic media said the haze triggered a surge in respiratory diseases, almost doubling cases of asthma in some areas, and boosting breathing problems 60 percent elsewhere.
"If the API exceeds 400 we want schools to close," Health Minister Chua Soi Lek told reporters. "We want people to cut down on outdoor activities. They must wear masks when outdoors."
Visibility on several stretches of Malaysia's highways was unsatisfactory, Bernama quoted Works Minister Samy Vellu as saying, while urging highway officials to warn motorists via electronic sign boards, radio and SMS text messages.
Some schools around the capital halted classes and sent students home for a couple of days after officials said they could close if the haze reached critical levels.
The haze has cut visibility in parts of the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways, to about 1 km (0.6 miles), meteorological officials said, but has not hit airline flights. (Additional reporting by Jalil Hamid and Mark
Bendeich)
|
|
